I completely agree with this — AND — I think it’s valuable to recognize that truly effective collaboration requires multiple skillsets. From my perspective, truly collaborative individuals practice regular activities to grow their self-awareness, which enables them to be truly open. Openness isn’t about just spouting opinions, but rather using self-accountable language to make requests rather than rigid demands. It’s about owning one’s own experience and having the courage to speak one’s truth. Staying flexible in behavior, which is required for collaboration means uncovering the fears that lead to rigidity. Sometimes we mistake “being too nice” as being collaborative, but it is the same fear that drives somebody to be too nice that drives somebody to be mean — neither is the most effective for creating a culture of collaboration. What we want is somebody with the skills to engage in healthy conflict, with enough self-awareness and courage to speak up when they notice they feel defensive or interpersonally threatened, and are able to address the issue of the communication patterns rather than just the task once those fears are triggered. There are also numerous skills related to problem solving that enable collaboration — including having a clear, collaborative intent. This means that the employee puts the other party’s interests at equal importance to his/her own — not more and not less. Having the skills to get past “positions” and focus instead of “interests” — slowing down the problem solving process to generate multiple options that meet as many interests as possible. And all of these skills can be cultivated. So, I’m not saying hire somebody who is negative or uncollaborative — but recognize that these traits are rarely inherent to anybody, but instead are behaviors and skills that anybody can learn. My favorite resource to elaborate on all of this is Radical Collaboration: https://gallaheredge.com/radical-collaboration/. Thanks for this great post, Aytekin Tank!