The super collaborators do not refer to any superhero. These are ordinary people, who are fully trained to carry out their duties in a company. In addition, they are responsible for providing differential value to the product or project in which they work.
A company that seeks to aspire to success requires having several super collaborators. What if you evaluated your company and determined that there are none? So, you have two valid options:
- Search for it among potential candidates for your company: which can be complex, given how demanding this profile is for companies.
- Develop and train it: with this option, you will have employees as well trained as possible, so that your work processes are satisfactory.
In this note, we show you what super collaborators are, and the skills you need to make one and we close with a series of investigations on how convenient it is to design a training plan.
What are super collaborators?
When you hear about super collaborators, you can get an idea about the kind of profile that this type of employee has. Basically, the super-collaborative employee is a person who has those specific skills that make them meet all the competencies that the work environment demands.
Currently, there is a large gap in the skills that the different employees of your company possess and the demands of the world of work. Today’s jobs require staff to possess certain job competencies that, while not as important or necessary before, are now considered essential.
For this reason, according to a McKinsey survey, 58% of the people surveyed say that the priority of companies is to close these skill gaps. Leaders believe that meeting business objectives will be achieved as teams hone their skills and attitudes.
So what role do super collaborators play? Well, they are those employees capable of adapting to volatility, while using their skills to fulfill what was promised. However, although the profile sounds captivating, it is rare to find this type of staff within your company (unless you give them the necessary guidance).
What skills does a super collaborator need?
We talk a lot about what super collaborators are, but we must also mention the skills required to manage this kind of employee.
This type of collaborator requires a set of hard and soft skills, through which these individuals will be able to exploit their full potential for personal benefit and also for the company.
1. Hard Skills
Now that you know what a super collaborator is, it’s time to determine if you have any of them in your company, or the ability to train them to become a star collaborator.
Now, what kind of skills are required by companies to generate super collaborators? They will depend on the business line and future projects. Some of the most requested is the following:
- cloud computing
- Artificial intelligence
- Analysis and interpretation of data
- Business analysis
- UX design
However, these are not the skills that are generally required in a company for super collaborators. It depends a lot on the type of organization and the skills required for the position.
Therefore, launching yourself into training your collaborators to turn them into super collaborators is not the most efficient way to achieve it. On the contrary, what we recommend is to create a training plan for companies that consider the specific needs of the business, the level of talent that you already have in the company, and the potential of your collaborators.
2. Soft skills
Soft skills are simply those personal qualities, associated with a person’s social and emotional perspective. And although before it was not given the value it deserved, in today’s work environments they are essential traits in a super collaborator.
In fact, these are the kinds of skills that really turn an average contributor into a super contributor these days. Technical skills, as difficult as they are to learn, are nothing more than an academic or practical path that most people can achieve. However, soft skills require a mindset that not all employees have, or are willing to develop.
In this case, soft attitudes also depend on the type of job that super collaborators are responsible for, but there are a series of soft skills that will increase the potential of any collaborator:
- Creativity
- emotional intelligence
- Conflict resolution
- Adaptability
- Collaboration
- Persuasion
- Innovation
- analytical thinking
- Leadership and social influence
The super collaborators have all these implements. This is why these types of employees are so valuable and so rare for companies to locate.
Characteristics of A Super Collaborator
In addition to the skills we just mentioned, super collaborators have a series of characteristics that make them true high-performance collaborators. These go beyond their work tasks, as they include skills for teamwork and for managing a long-term project. Let’s see some of them:
1. Is Positive
One of the great characteristics of all super collaborators is to always stay positive, especially in times of crisis, and look for the beneficial side of each situation. This quality allows them to face problems without generating greater stress situations and even generating learning in between.
2. It’s responsible
Another innate quality of a super collaborator is to be responsible not only for their work but also for the rest of the company’s commitments. Being responsible means knowing what the limits of your abilities are and what you can excel at. This way, he knows what tasks to take on and will meet deadlines without a hitch.
A responsible super collaborator is committed to the company’s activities as their own and is part of the company’s working life beyond work.
3. Practice active listening
Knowing how to listen and really understand the needs and emotions of those who are speaking to us is one of the key characteristics of super collaborators. Someone who practices active listening is able to understand what the other person is trying to convey and act accordingly. Likewise, it is capable of anticipating actions that will be beneficial for the team or the project.
4. constantly challenge yourself
Another of the qualities that a super collaborator presents is the passion for their own challenges and personal development. Star Contributors are motivated, proactive, and on-the-go individuals who seek to excel in both their soft and hard skills, thereby advancing the project along with their personal career path.
Differences between high-potential and high-performance employees
Although at first glance they seem the same, there is a key difference between these two types of collaborators and as part of the HR team, it is very important to know it, since only one of these types can become a super collaborator in the long term.
High-performance collaborators
For their part, high-performing employees are those who easily stand out from the rest, since they successfully meet their objectives, always take on difficult tasks, and are outstanding in their work.
But this does not mean that they have real motivation to continue growing or to set themselves personal challenges: they can be people who meet the following qualities and, therefore, perform their tasks in an excellent way:
- they are disciplined
- They are strategists
- are organized
- are productive
Although they are fundamental members of the company, high-performance collaborators do not last forever: since they are also people, they have maximum productivity that they will not be able to maintain over time.
High Potential Collaborators
This type of collaborator is the one to whom we must pay close attention if what we want is to develop a training plan and optimization of the company’s resources. In other words, a high-potential collaborator can become a super collaborator. They are the collaborators who contribute the most value to the business since they not only perform their daily tasks well but are willing to develop as professionals and advance in their jobs toward promotion.
A great characteristic of this type of collaborator is that they bring a unique ingredient to the company thanks to their extraordinary skills and their constant desire to improve, initiatives, and commitment to the project.
How to train a Super Collaborator?
If you want your company to have an adequate number of super collaborators, you must take the necessary measures for it. For this reason, you must make sure to establish a course of action that goes after achieving that highly valued figure in a company.
In order for you to be successful in your search and have the most qualified staff possible, we recommend that you comply with the following points:
1. Research your Collaborators
The best way to know if you have groups of super collaborators in your work team is to investigate what is happening in your workgroup. In this way, you will understand which elements the staff must improve, collectively and, especially, individually.
The best way to find out this information about your computer is by answering the following questions:
- What are the skills and aptitudes that your collaborators possess?
- What skills do they need to do their jobs as efficiently as possible?
Knowing where the skills gaps are is essential because they not only mean an opportunity to train and develop your work team, but you will also know in what aspects your collaborators are failing.
2. Design training programs
Since it becomes very difficult to locate super collaborators, companies have set out to create this type of collaborator. Now, how can this type of employee be trained?
There are two ways to form your team of super collaborators and they are the following:
1. Reskilling
Reskilling is nothing more than the training of new skills by a collaborator. Through a teaching process, the employee acquires new knowledge and mechanisms with which he was not familiar.
This learning is vital for the super collaborator to acquire the necessary tools to be able to face the new challenges of the work environment.
2. Upskilling
In turn, unlike reskilling, upskilling represents the type of teaching, through which new skills are perfected and a prolonged learning process is carried out. The intention of this process is to help the super collaborator to acquire the greatest possible training in the same profile.
Both processes are being widely applied in companies since they not only help the issue of employability but also represent a greater development of the current workforce and are usually one of the main drivers of super collaborators.
3. Evaluate the type of learning required by employees
Now that you know what your team needs and under the format in which you will enhance their virtues to turn them into super collaborators, you must decide the type of learning that you will implement in your company and which one can be better for the benefit of the collaborator.
There are several types of learning that can be useful to you and they are the following:
- Collaborative: they are hybrid formats with interaction or virtual tasks, where team members will meet to make joint creations.
- Productive: Employers allow employees to include training in their schedules.
- On-demand: when companies design learning paths, where employees learn at their own pace, how they need it, and when they need it.
- Vital: where concepts not related to work as such are internalized, but rather such issues as mental health, personal development, and financial health, among others, are discussed.
- Meta-learning: a digital space in which students and instructors interact in a kind of metaverse, where simulations are developed, without neglecting the emotional connection.
Benefits of designing training programs for your collaborators
Of course, preparing a team of super collaborators will not only help you have trained employees to meet any of your goals, but it will also improve your relationship with them and their links will be much stronger.
If you think that it is not worth investing in training super collaborators, we present the benefits of this action and you will see how you change your mind.
1. Increased staff appreciation
If the people who work with you perceive that you are concerned with training them and helping them with their integral growth, it is very likely that they will value those actions that you are doing for them. Thus, thanks to your action, your potential super collaborators will be more qualified for the jobs they currently have and those they will develop in the future.
Super collaborators will feel appreciated and the bond between them and the company will be strengthened. So if you want greater loyalty from your staff, implementing training plans is an excellent alternative.
2. More commitment and competition
If an organization supports and promotes the training of its staff, it not only increases the level of experience, but also a person’s commitment to their company and their job.
As both aspects increase, it is likely that a kind of competition between users will develop. If you focus it well, we assure you that your super collaborators will come out much more prepared and willing to achieve the best version of themselves .
3. Increased professional satisfaction
As we mentioned before, training and developing your work team represents an excellent service that its members will appreciate. People will always want the company they work for to consider them important enough to invest in and make them super collaborators.
Remember that it is not just about training the collaborator in a specific activity. It is about helping him to be the best version of himself, in any facet that he can explore and that his action helps the rest to promote the company’s growth.
4. Internal mobility is promoted
It is beneficial for the company to implement this training in search of super collaborators, especially since they will not waste time or resources in external searches for this type of profile.
Instead of looking for talent in today’s competitive job market, companies have started to better manage their workforce. For this reason, internal mobility has become such an important factor for organizations, since it allows:
- Reduce skills gaps.
- Reduce hiring costs.
- Promote the empowerment of its collaborators.
To do this, training your team and creating training plans is the way to develop this type of mobility. Even investing in new technologies will be very useful for managing your team.
Getting groups of super collaborators is one of the great business aspirations. Companies want to have this type of personality in all departments, but the demand exceeds supply, so the organizations understood that they must be the ones to promote the development of this type of person .
So, if you manage to form a team of super collaborators who have the tools to take charge of their tasks and, in addition, possess the soft skills that your company requires, then your company will be headed towards a prosperous path full of success.
