Building Stronger Cross-Team Collaboration

When teams work in silos, communication breaks down, productivity stalls, and deadlines slip. Admins are the key to preventing this. Whether coordinating across departments, managing workflows, or fostering alignment between executives and staff, administrative teams keep teams connected and working efficiently. 

According to ASAP’s 2024 State of Executive Administration Report, collaboration, relationship management, and strategic communication are now essential skills for admins. Mastering these areas improves daily workflows and positions admins as key problem-solvers and trusted partners in leadership. 

Here’s how to strengthen collaboration, improve communication, and build stronger working relationships.

Why Strong Collaboration Skills Matter

Admins have always connected people and processes, but today’s workplace requires a more structured, proactive approach to collaboration. Without clear strategies, teams struggle with misalignment, inefficiencies, and conflicting priorities.

Several key factors are driving the need for stronger collaboration skills:

• Hybrid and Remote Work: With teams spread across locations, clear communication channels are essential

• Complex Organizational Structures: Multiple stakeholders, including staff, leadership, and external partners, all have different needs and expectations

• Increased Workload and Shifting Priorities: Growing organizations require admins to manage competing demands and optimize workflows 

• Rising Leadership Expectations: Executives rely on admins to identify challenges, propose solutions, and keep teams on track

Key Collaboration Skills for Admins

1. Communicate Clearly and Strategically 

Communication is one of the most critical skills for admins, with 88% identifying it as essential in fast-paced workplaces. Effective communication creates alignment, eliminates confusion, and keeps projects moving forward.

How to Strengthen Communication:

• Adapting communication styles for executives, external partners, and staff

• Using concise, action-oriented language in emails, meeting minutes, and reports

• Providing stakeholders key information without overwhelming them with unnecessary details

In Action: An admin notices that project updates are geting lost in long email threads, leading to confusion. To solve this, they implement a weekly digest summarizing priorities, deadlines, and key decisions, eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth.

Best Practice: Standardize frequent communications like meeting minutes and project updates in a shared document with clear action items and deadlines. This maintains accountability and prevents miscommunication.

2. Manage Time and Priorities Effectively

Admins juggle multiple projects and serve as the central point of contact for key initiatives. Without strong time management, teams risk delays, bottlenecks, and missed deadlines.  

How to Stay on Top of Priorities:

• Balance urgent requests with long-term strategic tasks

• Identify and eliminate inefficiencies in daily workflows

• Align priorities with leadership goals and team needs

In Action: An admin coordinating a company-wide event introduces a deadline-driven timeline to prevent last-minute disruptions. Key decisions, such as venue selection and speaker confirmations, must be finalized in advance for smooth execution. 

Best Practice: Use a tiered priority system to categorize tasks based on urgency and impact. Regularly review workloads with leadership to allocate resource effective and keep projects on track.

3. Build Strong Relationships Across Teams

Trust and communication are the foundation of effective teamwork. Admins play a key role in fostering collaboration, breaking down silos, and resolving conflicts before they escalate.

How to Strengthen Team Relationships:

• Foster connections between departments to improve cross-team communication

• Encourage open dialogue and address challenges proactively

• Create opportunities for collaboration and engagement 

In Action: A department admin notices ongoing frustration between faculty and IT over technology issues. They arrange monthly check-ins to discuss concerns, provide updates, and collaborate on solutions. Over time, trust improves, and issues are resolved faster.

Best Practice: Schedule regular touchpoints with key stakeholders, whether through informal check-ins or structured feedback sessions. Proactively address challenges before they disrupt workflows.

Strengthen Collaboration with Strategic Team-Building

Collaboration doesn’t happen by chance. It requires intentional effort. Admins can drive engagement by standardizing communication, facilitating check-ins, and creating structured team-building opportunities.

Take Your Collaboration Skills to the Next Level

Watch our on-demand webinar: Team-Building Strategies to Enhance Unity and Collaboration and get an exclusive reference guide with actionable strategies for improving workplace collaboration.

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