I’ve always valued collaboration—but if I’m honest, I’ve also craved freedom. The freedom to act on my instincts, to follow my vision, to do things my way. And when you bring other people into the mix, that freedom can feel... constrained.
Because real collaboration isn’t just sharing space—it’s sharing decisions. It’s listening, adapting, and sometimes giving up control.
That used to feel like a compromise.
But here’s the shift I’ve made: True collaboration doesn’t ask you to give up. It invites you to level up.
When we approach conversations from a place of “seek first to understand, then to be understood” (thank you, Stephen Covey), everything changes. Instead of trying to win someone over, we get curious. We stop defending our point and start exploring what’s possible together.
That’s where synergy lives.
It’s the difference between 1 + 1 = 2 and 1 + 1 = 1,000.
But if we skip the listening and go straight to convincing? That’s when we settle for 1.5—compromise.
This mindset shift has impacted every area of my life. It’s changed how I work with teams, how I coach, how I partner. It’s the reason more and more of my collaborations are flourishing—because I’m no longer trying to be right. I’m aiming to create.
So here’s a challenge: What if your next conversation wasn’t about convincing someone of your idea—but about discovering something neither of you could’ve imagined alone?
That’s where the magic lives.