Most leaders agree that effective collaboration is more important than ever in today’s turbulent business environment.
A company’s very survival may depend on how well it can combine the potential of its people and the quality of the information it possesses with its ability – and willingness – to share what it knows with its teammates and across departmental, hierarchical and functional boundaries.
Leaders looking to foster organization-wide collaboration are using the following strategies:
Rewarding collaboration
As organizations move to collaborative cultures, leaders are changing the reward system – making collaborative performance part of the employee review process and giving recognition, bonuses and promotions to those who work effectively across organizational boundaries.
Communicating transparently
In any organization, how information is handled determines whether it becomes an obstacle to or an enabler of collaboration.
Company-wide transparent communication is a vitally important tool in disrupting silo mentality and fostering collaboration.
Encouraging networks
Employees with multiple networks throughout the organization bring added value and facilitate collaboration.
Leaders accelerate the flow of knowledge and information across boundaries by encouraging workplace relationships and ensuring that all offsite retreats or workplace events include opportunities for socializing.
Creating alignment around unifying goals
The foundation of a successful organization is an entire team focused on common goals.
Business unit leaders understand and communicate the overarching goals of the total organization to highlight the importance of working in concert with other areas to achieve crucial objectives.
Increasing innovation through diversity
Creativity thrives on collective diversity – that potent combination of ideas from people across the organization who have different backgrounds, thinking styles and expertise.
When an organization focuses on collaborative innovation, leaders create cross-functional teams to capture diverse perspectives.
Focusing on the customer
Whether your industry is high-tech or healthcare, manufacturing or management consulting – and whether your company is a for-profit business enterprise, a government entity or a non-profit association – your customers want a seamless, personalized experience.
And seamless, customer-centric service takes collaboration.
Building relationships of trust
Collaborative relationships thrive in an environment of personal trust. Trust is the belief or confidence one party has in another party’s reliability, integrity and honesty.
It’s the expectation that the faith one places in someone else will be honoured. It’s also the glue that holds together any group. Trust is the foundation of true collaboration.
Redefining their role as a leader
I once asked a Silicon Valley CEO why he thought command-and-control leadership was wrong.
He corrected me: “There’s nothing wrong with command and control. It’s simply irrelevant in the 21st century. In this networked world, we need collaborative leaders.”
In contrast to control-minded leaders of the past, today’s most effective leaders exercise a different kind of power – they get results through positive influence rather than position.
This new style of leadership involves blending personal and interpersonal skills, which form the basis of a leader’s ability to impact, include, and inspire others.
Today’s organizations exist in an increasingly complex and ever-shifting ocean of change. As a result, collaborative leadership has moved from a nice-to-have organizational philosophy to a must-have professional strategy for continued success.
Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, is an executive coach, consultant, and international keynote speaker at corporate, government, and association events. She is also the author of STAND OUT: How to Build Your Leadership Presence.
