Smarter Collaboration: Dr. Heidi K. Gardner on Balance and Trust

Dr. Heidi K. Gardner recently joined "Hsu United" podcast host Richard Hsu to explore many different facets of smarter collaboration.

They talked about her background, including her dissertation research showing that people under performance pressure often don’t collaborate as effectively as those with a more manageable schedule. The key for leaders is to strike the right balance between filtering out pressure and stress for colleagues while still applying enough pressure to get them energized to perform.

Other topics of conversation were how:

• superficial homogeneity can make it difficult for collaborators to dig in and see their differences

• collaborating on internal initiatives can be a great way to foster the competence trust that makes client-focused collaboration easier later on

• she and her colleagues are developing new tools to bring smarter collaboration to more organizations