Social skill: Collaboration and cooperation / team-working

There are some people who work well with others: they build good and productive working and other relationships.

This is a key social skill in emotional intelligence. These people tend to see the relationship as at least as important as the task in hand: they value people as much or more as the activity.

They actively collaborate, sharing plans and ideas, and work together to build a better whole. In doing so, they promote a cooperative climate in which everyone is invited to contribute. They also actively seek out opportunities for collaborative working.

When good team-workers are in a team, the team performs better. They draw other members of the team in and help them to collaborate. They build a team identity and therefore foster commitment. They may do this from a leadership role, or they may be a subordinate, but having people like this in a team is crucial to success.