Collaborative leadership is on the rise. In a 2018 Deloitte survey, a majority of respondents from the business community indicated that it's “very important.” What is it, though?
We’ll unpack it more as we go along. In a nutshell, collaborative leadership is a type of organizational structure that’s a little flatter and less hierarchical than what many of us are used to. If you want to implement this type of leadership, here’s how to do it.
1. Put the Emphasis on Teams
More than anything, collaborative leadership means knowing when to trust the process – and trust your teams, too. Like the human heart, where multiple chambers work together but also separately, your teams have missions of their own while remaining part of a whole.
Your organization can take on a life of its own, without heavy-handed direction from above. However, it requires a shift of mentality from top-down to team-centric.
2. Avoid the Silo Trap
Let’s expand on the idea of achieving collaborative leadership through a team-centric approach. In a nutshell, this means respecting the checks and balances and division of labor that exist between teams. It also requires insurance that mission-critical information doesn’t stay siloed.
The “silo trap” happens when individuals and teams don’t have a good sense of how they fit into the bigger picture. As a remedy, look for ways to help your teams share information and processes in new ways, and even engage in cross-training. They’ll look to each other for guidance and directions a little more and look to the C-suite a little less.
3. Share Ownership
Remember that collaborative leadership is team-centric rather than you-centric. Now that millennials are a majority in the workforce, they’re letting employers know what they want out of their jobs and careers.
They want “holarchy” in the workplace. It’s where decision-making capabilities, process ownership and the stakes are shared and diffused more equitably throughout the organization. It means offering employees both real and symbolic ownership over the company and its future.
4. Reward Failure and Success
The benefits of rewarding success should be obvious. However, not every leader knows that rewarding failure is nearly just as important, and for many of the same reasons.
Employees and team members don’t want to paint by numbers. They want to respect the organization while trying new things and pushing the envelope. So if somebody tries something new but doesn’t quite stick the landing, make sure you reward that kind of initiative and explore what could have happened differently.
Some of the best ideas came about because of a collaborative workplace that valued experimentation, free thought and even failure.
5. Build a Diverse Team
If you’ve looked out the window lately, you know that humanity is up against some challenges. The good news is, some of the solutions are blessedly simple. A lot of our problems came about because our institutions spent too long as closed systems. There was not enough commingling of people, ideas, viewpoints, lifestyles and cultures helping guide things along.
Like society in general, building a stable and thriving workplace or organization means honoring diversity. It's vital to recognize that institutions and processes work better when we’re allowed to come as we are.
6. Provide the Right Resources
Part of any leader’s job is ensuring their teams have what they need to do their best work, consistently. That includes the right tools and technologies.
Time is another resource people need plenty of. It’s within your power, at least a little bit, to make sure they have the time they need. Help everyone in your organization achieve balance between work and life. They’ll arrive feeling more refreshed and optimistic, and will be ready to play their role with distinction and enthusiasm.
7. Share the Work of Dreaming
As a leader, you must establish a strong and compelling vision for your organization. It’s what guides you and helps others buy into what you want to accomplish. That doesn’t mean you’re done dreaming, though.
One of the pillars of collaborative leadership is being willing to share your dream with others who can help you fine-tune it and bring it into focus and fruition. Trust that others will share both your creative spirit and your enthusiasm once you let them into your decision-making process.
8. Cultivate Emotional Intelligence
Finally, remember that leaders are emotional as well as practical and organizational. They set the tone from the top and provide an example worth emulating. One way they do this is through emotional intelligence.
For leaders, this trait means not sweating the small stuff, giving others space when you feel they need it and cultivating an atmosphere where people can be themselves while remaining respectful of others. Emotional intelligence is empathy — and it’s the lifeblood of everything worth doing in life.
With a healthy respect for boundaries, as well as what binds our organizations together, workplaces can become more harmonious and collaborative than ever. Collaborative leadership starts at the top, but it doesn’t end that way.
Don’t think of it as a destination, either. This is leadership that not only gradually dissolves into something more sociable and harmonious, but also more efficient, creative and ready for whatever comes next.
