Collaborative Leadership
Collaborative leadership is all about collaborative problem-solving and decision-making or can also be defined as the leadership of a collaborative effort. . The term started to appear in the mid-1990s in response to the formation of long term public-private partnerships to rebuild public infrastructure. Learn how you can use principles of collaborative leadership to enhance your leadership skills for being an effective leader.
What is Collaborative Leadership?
There could be two ways to define collaborative leadership, first, it could be the leadership of a collaborative effort and second, it could be leadership as a collaborative effort. The term Collaborative Leadership describes an emerging body of theory and management practice which is focused on the leadership skills and attributes needed to deliver results across organizational boundaries. Collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome. A collaborative leader is the one who has the ability to take responsibility for a heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared need/purpose. Collaboration requires managers to achieve success through people and resources outside their control.
Some common themes that appear from these definitions are listed below:
1. There exists a common purpose or shared need
2. Successful outcome of the shared need depends on contributions from the heterogeneous team, more or less in the nature of voluntary contributions
3. Everyone is on an equal footing and enjoys the same rights and responsibilities
4. All need to work together to solve a problem, create something new, or run an organization or initiative; different talents or abilities are called for success
5. The leader is not the formal leader, does not have absolute control of the group, but has assumed the responsibility for guiding and coordinating the process by which the group decides upon and carries out actions to accomplish its goals
6. Leadership is permanently shared by all or several, members of the group. Group guides itself
Characteristics of Collaborative Leaders:
1. Willingness to take risks, finds the personal motive for collaborating
2. Eager listeners and likes building relationships
3. Passion for the cause; have long term vision
4. Optimistic about the future
5. Able to share knowledge, power, and credit
6. Effective Communicators; ability to simplify complex situations for the group
7. Ability to handle group conflict
8. Ability to motivate, inject energy, passion, and drive into the team
Situations where Effective:
1. Public-Private Partnerships
2. Global Supply Chains
3. Civic collaboration to solve complex community problems
4. On-line collaboration – Linux, Wikipedia, etc.
5. Political collaboration to tackle global issues such as the credit crunch, climate change, and terrorism
6. Situations where problems are serious and complex
7. Situations when there are a number of diverse stakeholders
8. Situations when stakeholders have varied interests
9. Situations when an issue affects a whole organization or a whole community
Leadership Tasks for Collaborative Leader:
1. Inspiring commitment and action
2. Proving guidance and helps people develop the vision and passion
3. Facilitator and a great problem solver
4. Inclusiveness/building broad-based involvement
5. Motivation and participation
6. Fostering close relationships among staff members
7. Restating arguments, ideas, or issues so that everyone's clear on them
8. Ensuring all voices are heard
9. Keeping the focus on what's best for the group
10. Helping the group to identify and obtain the necessary resources to do the work
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
The ten most important qualities that define a good leader are self-awareness, interpersonal and communication skills, ethical values, organizational consciousness, self-confidence, adaptability and flexibility, imagination and creativity, focus & result-orientation, continuous self-development and accountability and ownership for his actions. These ten qualities of leadership every good leader should possess to a certain extent and must continually strive to develop them.
-
Authoritarian Leadership Style
Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!
-
Participative leadership is one of the most effective styles and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members. Learn more about this leadership style and situations when it is effective.
-
Crisis leadership is a very important part of leading in today's world. The skills a leader needs in order to guide people during a crisis are different from the skills needed to help a group grow. Are you a good crisis leader? What is your leadership style in case of a business crisis situation? A business crisis can test the strongest of leaders, read this article to explore how to ensure you’re ready to take action and weather the storm when one strikes you.
-
Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in him. Narcissists are good for companies that need people with vision and the courage to take them in new directions. Such leaders sometime might be highly successful, but is it a style to be followed. Learn the various types of narcissistic leadership and the characteristics of such leaders.
-
Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command and strict regulations. Bureaucratic leadership style is a very decent style for work involving serious safety risks, such as handling toxic substances, moving large objects. The focus is on compliance with rules and laid down procedures to make sure that the group is doing their job correctly and safely. Learn some advantages and disadvantages of this style and situations in which this style could prove to be effective.
-
Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.
-
Laissez-faire is a style of leadership that affords the group members a great deal of independence. Tasks are delegated to the group members and they are responsible to see the project through to fruition. Research has shown that this style of leadership leads to the lowest levels of productivity. This article explains this style and covers the implications of having a hands-off approach and the situations where this style could be effective.
-
Charles Darwin had once commented that “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Agility means the capability of rapidly and efficiently adapting to changes and recently, agility has been applied in the context of software development, agile enterprise, and agile leadership. Agile leaders play an important, even essential, role in scaling agility in an organization. Understand how being an agile leader helps in effectively catalyzing organizational change.
-
This style is characterized by leaders making decisions for others and expecting followers to follow instructions. The directive leader is adept at giving instructions, setting expectations, and establishing timelines and performance standards. However, it is possible for the same leaders to display both directive and supportive behavior as per the demands of the situation.
