Working Towards A Common Goal
Wednesday Wisdom, inspiration and advice for women entrepreneurs and small business owners
Working together towards a common goal is not often the declaration seen posted at the top of someone’s New Year’s resolution. We tend to be individuals moving down our own lane to the beat of our own drum towards a personal objective. In fact, you don’t think of the phrase unless it arises from an elementary school memory when a teacher said, “let’s work together” or a coach of a sports team said, “if we work together we can win this game!” I’m pretty sure we would hear it if we were volunteers in Houston this week working on rescuing families from the flood waters.
For the most part we were taught to work towards a common goal as a well-mannered cooperative individual, but life “happens” and common goals fall apart in times of distress, divorce, death and illness. As seem in the Houston crisis, not only did the water rise to immeasurable counts , but really good people rose up to assist others. Why then when the flood waters recede and the turmoil dissipates do we forget working together is a beautiful goal?
When women consider creating a business they are instructed to conduct market research to discover all they can about their competition. From the beginning the word competition produces a feeling of antagonism and sets us in turmoil with others in our industry. As the new business owner matures, she discovers not all competitors are stingy or ruthless; and finding the right competitors with a similar personality and perspective in business creates productive relationships.
When Onondaga Community College‘s eighth president Dr. Casey Crabill took over the reins of the higher institution in Syracuse, she immediately sought collaboration with education and business partners proving that higher education institutions must collaborate to be successful in their region. Dr. Crabill was invited to take our “P.O.W.E.R.” event theme of collaboration between women owned businesses and inspire women to work together more often to be successful individually and collectively.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should inspire you to construct a list of top business competitors in your local area, regionally and statewide. Write down as much information as you can about each one, recall what others have said doing business with them, and the similarities and differences between your entities. Also mull over ways to partner with certain competitors to make your industry more influential, bigger, broader or innovative so your businesses are working towards a common goal. If that seems hard to perceive, come and listen to Dr. Crabill yourself and be inspired by what made her successful in these areas.
It shouldn’t take a crisis, new calendar year or unexpected occurrence to think about working with others towards a common goal that benefits everyone. Imagine what Houston would be like at this moment and how many people’s lives would have been lost if people weren’t working there towards a common goal? We can also make our business community stronger by working together towards a common goal.
Women TIES 
I am a huge proponent of “banding together”, especially when it comes to Small Businesses, so your advice hits home Tracy! Finding ways to work with other businesses towards a common goal definitely makes sense.
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Thank you Kim for your comments. Life is so much better when you work with others period. We weren’t meant to be working on everything ourselves in our lives, we need others besides us. Business is the perfect place for people to unite and work collaboratively towards common goals. Tracy
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