From Good to Great: The Transformative Power and Potential of Collaborative Leadership

I want you to imagine that you’ve been asked to paint a copy of a painting. But there’s a catch. You’re blindfolded and you’ll have to rely on four people who’ll describe the painting to you, one at a time.?

The first person describes a beautiful sunrise with red and gold light playing on the clouds. The second tells you that the scene is of a coastline, with a city hazy in the distance, a mass of dark lines depicting towers and buildings. The third focuses on two tiny boats, picked out as shadows with clear figures of passengers and men rowing. And the fourth describes how the intricate brushstrokes work with the texture of the canvas to evoke complex patterns of light and shade.?

All four are talking about the same painting, in this case Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. But each person’s unique perspective has altered how they understand and interpret the painting. And, even more incredibly, your perspective will have altered how you understood and interpreted their descriptions. I suspect the painting you imagined based on those descriptions is very different to Monet’s painting!?

Just as you might have gained a more complete understanding of the painting by listening to multiple descriptions from different people, it can be helpful to consider different perspectives to gain a fuller understanding of a situation or issue. By considering diverse perspectives, we can gain new insights and develop a more nuanced understanding of the world around us.?

Someone's perspective might be influenced by their cultural background, their upbringing, their education, their personal values, or a myriad of other factors. But the point is that everyone sees opportunity, gaps, areas of strength and weakness with a different lens.??

For a leader, the point of collaboration is identifying those nuggets so eventually you have a cross section of perspectives and skills. Being able to compile more ideas and insights helps you cast a wider net over opportunities for improvement and identify those things you wish to reinforce and entrench. While also recognizing what your strengths are and without taking away from the things that make you successful. It’s a fine balance.?

Collaboration and growth?

Growth means different things for different businesses. Some organizations will look to double every five years, ideally, and that’s a formidable goal to set. Other businesses grow more slowly and are happy with that. Others prioritize other metrics. Whatever your measure of growth, the benefit of a growth business is that it provides so much more opportunity for employees to develop, advance, learn new skills, and gain new levels of responsibility as well.???

To maintain growth and to move to the next level means looking deeper and tapping into new elements. Some attributes will help you get to certain phases in your evolution, some will be required if you want to develop, and some things won’t be required for the next phase of growth.??

Identifying those elements is crucial and not as simple as comparing yourself with other businesses at the same stage. Your unique and a collaborative outlook will ensure that you have all lenses on the situation so that you’re not missing things that are right in front of you.??

Let’s come back to the Monet. It can be very easy to shrug your shoulders and think ‘I didn’t capture those elements or see the painting that way at all.’ Well, someone else would have. Someone else did! That’s why it’s important to listen to every perspective.?

It can be very common for leaders to have tunnel vision around what has made them successful. They think: ‘I’m just going to keep focusing on what got us to where we are.’ Sometimes though it takes just as much know how and skill to say: ‘Here are the things we need to adapt and here are the things we need to keep the same’ because those are the elements that carried us to where we are.??

Those are the things that have attracted people in. Both employees and customers. So, you need to protect them, add to them, and support them. Sometimes in a collaborative environment there is a tendency for people to challenge the values and culture that make you unique and successful. As a leader you must balance taking in new perspectives with ensuring continuity in the areas that work.?

This is a different approach than you’ll need when things aren’t working. Then you likely require a new recipe.???

Collaboration and culture?

Collaboration allows for greater accommodation of different staff needs, styles and expectations. In the absence of that collaborative approach, you will overlook the need for your workplace culture to evolve. It’s ok to have a fixed set of hiring attributes that you are looking for; however, this will mean that often you aren’t allowing your workplace culture to evolve, accommodating the style of less tenured workforce or for people that are newer to the employment market who need to be treated differently or supported differently.?

The attributes that you are seeking in the recruitment process should evolve as your workforce changes and reshapes.?

The attributes of collaborative leadership?

Collaborative leadership requires leaders to be very open minded, humble, and to work with their teams not above them. It means having a nuanced understanding of what others can bring to the table. For example, you don’t need to be a CFO to suggest a financial report can look differently and have new levels of information and insight. That applies to any area of an organization. Try the following:?

• Offer your expertise but acknowledge your weak spots?

This can be a tough one. Doing so creates an environment of trust and openness, promotes a culture of learning, and models self-awareness. It also encourages team members to share their own strengths and weaknesses and work together to leverage each other's skills and expertise.?

• Build a community?

A collaborative leader recognizes that the success of the organization or project depends on the collective efforts of a diverse group of people. Building a community involves bringing people together around a shared goal or purpose, and creating a culture of collaboration and mutual support.?

• Invite more opinions and perspectives?

Actively seek out input and ideas from all members of the community, and create opportunities for them to contribute and engage with one another. You can get a greater return on investment by putting together small project task forces or committees that leverage people for their skills while inviting wider perspectives. I’ve found small teams made up of people from across the organization who are at different stages in their careers to be most effective.?

• Understand role clarity and emphasize team responsibility?

Recognize the strengths and expertise of each member of the community and work to empower them to take ownership of their work and contribute to the success of the project or organization.??

These are all styles that allow for better outcomes. Allowing you to gather the golden nuggets of insight that everyone has. Everyone, on every level of your organization, has something that they can contribute to improving the workplace or adding perspectives.?

By continuously educating and informing people what the goal is, what the vision is, and how they can help get you there, you’ll encourage collaboration and teamwork. Everyone needs to feel that regardless of title or role that they are affecting the outcome together.??

Collaborative culture doesn’t mean that everyone must be involved in everything. Once everyone understands how their different roles and responsibilities can fit together, then you can work together toward the common goal. It comes down to modelling openness, transparency and a willingness to learn from others outside of your area of expertise as a leader and encouraging those traits as part of a collaborative culture.??