Collaborative leadership
Encyclopedia
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. The term started to appear in the mid-1990’s in response to the twin trends of the growth in strategic alliance
s between private corporations and the formation of long term public private partnership contracts to rebuild public infrastructure
.
article “Collaborative Advantage”, Rosabeth Moss Kanter
talks about leaders who recognise that there are critical business relationships “that cannot be controlled by formal systems but require (a) dense web of interpersonal connections…”. And in a book published in that same year Chrislip and Larson looked at the attributes of great civic leaders in communities across the US and found some similar attributes. “Collaboration needs a different kind of leadership; it needs leaders who can safeguard the process, facilitate interaction and patiently deal with high levels of frustration”
Hank Rubin author and President of the Institute of Collaborative Leadership has written “A collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome.” In his book "Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships for Communities and Schools" Rubin asks "Who is a collaborative leader?" and answers "You are a collaborative leader once you have accepted responsibility for building - or helping to ensure the success of - a heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared purpose . Your tools are (1) the purposeful exercise of your behavior, communication, and organizational resources in order to affect the perspective, beliefs, and behaviors of another person (generally a collaborative partner) to influence that person's relationship with you and your collaborative enterprise and (2) the structure and climate of an environment that supports the collaborative relationship."
David Archer and Alex Cameron in their book Collaborative Leadership: How to succeed in an interconnected world, identify the basic task of the collaborative leader as the delivery of results across boundaries between different organisations. They say “Getting value from difference is at the heart of the collaborative leader’s task… they have to learn to share control, and to trust a partner to deliver, even though that partner may operate very differently from themselves.”
and State Justice Institute, defines five qualities of a collaborative leader:
In a similar way, Archer and Cameron list ten key lessons for a successful collaborative leader:
Rod Newing writing in a Financial Times
supplement special report says “If a collaboration is to be effective, each party must recognise and respect the different culture of the other”. And traditional development paths don’t prepare leaders well for this “traditional management development, is based on giving potential managers a team of people and a set of resources to control - and success is rewarded with more people and more resources to control. By contrast, collaboration requires managers to achieve success through people and resources outside their control and for this they have had no preparation”.
An Ipsos MORI research report published in 2007 found that relationship management and collaborative leadership were the top two qualities or capabilities that Directors of organisations involved in large business partnerships would have liked to have had more access to when setting up or running a partnership .
Strategic alliance
A Strategic Alliance is a relationship between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organizations...
s between private corporations and the formation of long term public private partnership contracts to rebuild public infrastructure
Public infrastructure
Public infrastructure is a general term often qualified specifically as:* Aviation infrastructure - air traffic control technology in aviation* Critical infrastructure - assets required to sustain human life...
.
Defining Collaborative Leadership
In her 1994 Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
article “Collaborative Advantage”, Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a tenured professor in business at Harvard Business School, where she holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship...
talks about leaders who recognise that there are critical business relationships “that cannot be controlled by formal systems but require (a) dense web of interpersonal connections…”. And in a book published in that same year Chrislip and Larson looked at the attributes of great civic leaders in communities across the US and found some similar attributes. “Collaboration needs a different kind of leadership; it needs leaders who can safeguard the process, facilitate interaction and patiently deal with high levels of frustration”
Hank Rubin author and President of the Institute of Collaborative Leadership has written “A collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome.” In his book "Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships for Communities and Schools" Rubin asks "Who is a collaborative leader?" and answers "You are a collaborative leader once you have accepted responsibility for building - or helping to ensure the success of - a heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared purpose . Your tools are (1) the purposeful exercise of your behavior, communication, and organizational resources in order to affect the perspective, beliefs, and behaviors of another person (generally a collaborative partner) to influence that person's relationship with you and your collaborative enterprise and (2) the structure and climate of an environment that supports the collaborative relationship."
David Archer and Alex Cameron in their book Collaborative Leadership: How to succeed in an interconnected world, identify the basic task of the collaborative leader as the delivery of results across boundaries between different organisations. They say “Getting value from difference is at the heart of the collaborative leader’s task… they have to learn to share control, and to trust a partner to deliver, even though that partner may operate very differently from themselves.”
Key lessons for leaders
There have been a number of research projects and reviews of key lessons for Collaborative leaders but they all come down to some similar themes. Madeleine Carter, writing for the Center for Effective Public Policy as part of research project funded by the United States Department of JusticeUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and State Justice Institute, defines five qualities of a collaborative leader:
- Willingness to take risks
- Eager listeners
- Passion for the cause
- Optimistic about the future
- Able to share knowledge, power and credit
In a similar way, Archer and Cameron list ten key lessons for a successful collaborative leader:
- Find the personal motive for collaborating
- Find ways of simplifying complex situations for your people
- Prepare for how you are going to handle conflict well in advance
- Recognise that there are some people or organisations you just can’t partner with
- Have the courage to act for the long term
- Actively manage the tension between focusing on delivery and on building relationships
- Invest in strong personal relationships at all levels
- Inject energy, passion and drive into your leadership style
- Have the confidence to share the credit generously
- Continually develop your interpersonal skills, in particular: empathy, patience, tenacity, holding difficult conversations, and coalition building.
Rod Newing writing in a Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
supplement special report says “If a collaboration is to be effective, each party must recognise and respect the different culture of the other”. And traditional development paths don’t prepare leaders well for this “traditional management development, is based on giving potential managers a team of people and a set of resources to control - and success is rewarded with more people and more resources to control. By contrast, collaboration requires managers to achieve success through people and resources outside their control and for this they have had no preparation”.
Applications of collaborative leadership
The need for collaborative leadership is being recognised in more and more areas;- Public Private Partnerships
- Global Supply ChainSupply chainA supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
s - Civic collaboration to solve complex community problems
- On-line collaboration – LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
etc. - Political collaboration to tackle global issues such as the credit crunch, climate changeGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and terrorism
An Ipsos MORI research report published in 2007 found that relationship management and collaborative leadership were the top two qualities or capabilities that Directors of organisations involved in large business partnerships would have liked to have had more access to when setting up or running a partnership .
See also
- Business partneringBusiness partneringBusiness partnering is "the development of successful, long term, strategic relationships between customers and suppliers, based on achieving best practice and sustainable competitive advantage".- Mission :...
- Strategic allianceStrategic allianceA Strategic Alliance is a relationship between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organizations...
- Situational leadership
- CollaborationCollaborationCollaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
- WikinomicsWikinomicsWikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration and open-source technology, such as wikis, to be successful...