40-year-old CEO shares the No. 1 red flag she sees in employees—avoiding it is ‘more important than ever’
You’ve probably worked with someone who’s always the loudest in meetings, talks over you and your co-workers, or takes more credit for projects than they deserve.
That’s the exact kind of anti-collaborative person who Sarah Paiji Yoo tries to steer clear from when hiring new employees.
“I like to lead as an open and collaborative leader. And I think that is a must-have for every team member that we bring on,” Paiji Yoo, the CEO and co-founder of eco-friendly cleaning product startup Blueland, tells CNBC Make It.
Anti-collaborative people can make for a particularly frustrating kind of colleague — even if they’re great at their job, on paper — often contributing to low morale, stunted productivity and broken workplace relationships.
“We like to hire people who aren’t coming in and saying, ‘I’m the expert in this and thus, I should be able to make the final call,’” says Paiji Yoo, 40. “Folks who understand that a different set of inputs, a lot of times, lead to a better outcome.”
Collaborative people don’t just appear friendlier in the workplace, according to Heidi K. Gardner, a leadership expert and distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School. They have a “major competitive edge” over their colleagues, because they typically “deliver higher quality results, get promoted faster, are [get] more noticed by senior management,” Gardner wrote for Make It last year.
“Being a collaborator isn’t easy. But the primary goal is simple: bringing people together to solve problems and learn something new,” Gardner added. “The mindset I always have is, ‘That person thinks differently from me. They know something different that I don’t, and I can learn a lot from them.’”
Don’t come across as transactional
In 2019, Paiji Yoo co-founded Blueland and appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” to pitch the television show’s investors.
She and one of her early employees, Syed Naqvi — now Blueland’s chief innovation officer — launched their company in 2019. They appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” later that year, and secured an investment deal with Kevin O’Leary: $270,000 in exchange for 3% of the company and a royalty deal of 50 cents per product sold until O’Leary made his money back.
By 2022, Blueland had a total of $35 million in investor funding, over $100 million in lifetime sales and profitability. Paiji Yoo, who declined to share additional financial information, pointed to her company’s ongoing relationship with O’Leary — whose television persona is decidedly prickly — as an example of positive collaboration.
“He is always just a text or call away. We’re touching base by text or call, typically at least once a month. [In the] early days, it was like every week or every two weeks,” she says. “He’s been very engaged and very hands on with the business.”
The trick is to avoid coming across as transactional, says Paiji Yoo. Sending curt Slack messages or emails, or only talking to colleagues when they want something, can send a message to your co-workers that you aren’t interested in collaborating or building relationships.
“I think it’s more important than ever to come into work relationships with an open mind and assuming good intent,” she adds. “It’s [key] for innovation.”
She’s right, says Stanford University lecturer and communication expert Matt Abrahams: You’ll gain more workplace influence by finding allies and being helpful to the people around you.
“Check in with people and really listen when people say things to you,” Abrahams told Make It in March. “I’m not saying be manipulative. Buy [and respond] to the things you care about. Those are the things that, I think, can make a difference.”
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