Collaborative Leadership explained

What is a Collaborative Leadership style?

This definition reminds me of something that I like to experience in the places where I work, which I believe is an indicator of good Collaborative Leadership: meetings where it is not possible to identify the role and hierarchy of the people present since everyone – including the managers – are there to contribute their best to solve the issue at hand.

Collaborative Leadership Characteristics

Flat hierarchies, transparency, influence; let’s start by looking into what makes a Collaborative Leader:

(1) The Collaborative Leader focuses primarily on the environment: the leadership challenge is to create a participatory environment where people can feel engaged and challenged. It is an environment with decentralized power, organized in a network where it is possible to have a systemic vision involving the whole business. Manage the system, not the people.

(2) The Collaborative Leader knows his followers (who, in this case, would be his colleagues) very well: full attention to people is the foundation for collaboration. Know people deeply. Showing interest and getting to know each other is foundational for a psychologically safe environment. Collaborative Leadership is about breaking silos and working cross-functional, even across teams. Collaborative Leaders therefore focus on their influence rather than their power.

(3) Active listening: Collaborative Leadership prioritizes communication, which must be a two-way road. Feedback is used in all directions in a constant learning approach.

(4) Walk the talk: Collaborative Leadership tends to align speech with action. What is said is what is seen in practice. That goes hand in hand with being authentic as a leader.

(5) Empathy: In a collaborative environment, people are not seen as just another number, but as a complete human being, with values and history, who is not left out within the group. Empathy is crucial in such environments.

(6) Focus on results: Teams with Collaborative Leadership have a strong focus on results, and a true culture of problem-solving, without wasting energy looking for someone to blame for mistakes.

• Develop Collaborative Leadership by being human

Finally, I have to mention one of my favorite practices, Personal Maps. A simple and powerful tool that helps us see our colleagues as people who go far beyond the badge, as whole beings. There are numerous ways to use Personal Maps, and hardly anything can go wrong. So the tip is: give it a try! Oh, and let me know how it goes for you. I love Personal Maps, and I love to hear stories of how people use it.

This complex world demands different approaches and solutions than we have ever done before. Collaborative, engaging environments where people feel a sense of belonging are essential to unleashing the creativity needed to thrive in the modern world. 

Environments that can develop transparency and autonomy, purpose and motivation, collaboration, and healthy competition, and of course generate results will be the ones that will “defer failure for as long as possible” as we always say in the sixth management vision of Improve Everything.

Collaborative Leadership is crucial to making all this happen! I believe in a world where everyone is happy at work, and I believe that being a Collaborative Leader will get us there!