Collaboration and Leadership

Collaboration and leadership is the ability to work effectively with others, including those from diverse groups and those with opposing points of view. Collaboration and leadership are essential in every group situation. They facilitate the effective communication of ideas within diverse group and allow group members to band together to accomplish shared goals.

SMU-X provides an excellent platform for collaboration and leadership skills to be horned. Students as valued members of project teams are responsible for the success of their projects. Students who assume leadership positions within their team learn to be accountable for the progress and quality of their project work. Students collaborate effectively in teams as they seek to understand, negotiate and balance diverse views and beliefs of others.

Why is this important?

In both classrooms and workplaces, the goal of putting people to work together is to achieve a higher quality output, as opposed to what an individual can produce. Organisations expect their employees to be able to collaborate collectively so as to fulfil their objectives and achieve results. Thereby, it is crucial that students learn to lead and work in teams while in school in preparation for the future workplace.

Collaboration and leadership skills also help teams understand how their work intersects and relate to each other, and will in turn be more open in accepting new viewpoints. This consequently will create synergies and avoid silos. Attention to such skills are appreciated as they promote innovation, collegiality, productivity, efficiency, better employment engagement and talent retention.