Ambitious leaders who are more traditional in their management style and approach seem to be finding it increasingly difficult to be as effective as required. The world is changing, becoming more volatile, unpredictable, ambiguous and complex – forcing leaders to look at themselves in a different light.

However, as more companies seek to adopt a culture of open innovation and prepare for impending disruption to either their sector, industry or business model – the role of leadership continues to evolve towards broad-based team building approaches that encourage creative thinking and problem solving.

Collaborative teamwork requires a reliance on others to get work done. As such, tasks are more interconnected and decisions will be more influential at an organisation level.

As a result, a level of collaborative leadership is demanded. So, what questions do leaders have around this new form of leadership and business culture?

1) How do I become a more collaborative leader?

There are plenty of studies on the traits of collaborative leadership, but without a doubt the most important dimension for a CEO to tackle is self-leadership.

CEOs with traditional leadership styles believe power comes from their position of authority. That is how those CEOs will lead and behave, that is how they will recruit and that will be the prevailing culture that drives the way things are done in an organisation moving forward.

Truly collaborative leaders believe power is greatest within a team. So, embracing the necessary changes that you need to make as a CEO will be your biggest challenge.

2) Even if I can change as CEO, what difficulties will I face in trying to get the business to be more collaborative?

Assuming you have genuinely subordinated your ego as leader, you need to be prepared for groups taking (what seems to be) the wrong approach.

As a collaborative leader, it is important to put aside your own decision biases and ideas and be nurturing of processes and environments to guide groups in their goal setting, strategies and business plans.

Sharing leadership is not everyone’s preference, as many people would rather the leader just tell them what to do – so you may need to overcome resistance to the whole concept of collaborative leadership.

As the CEO, you and your leadership team will need to demand the ability to tackle conflict head on and mediate where needed so outcomes are acceptable with those involved.

Finally, you should be patient with the idea of collaboration. It is time consuming as it involves larger numbers of people and progress may appear slow, and it will not happen without friction and positive challenges.

3) When is collaborative leadership the best solution?

Clearly, there are numerous situations and organisational contexts where collaborative leadership would not be the style of choice. Here are some examples of where collaborative leadership is ideal.

  • When there are a number of diverse stakeholders, or stakeholders with varied interests.

If you are trying to get a number of people together, there has to be an element of trust among the group. The process and the professionals involved need to be seriously considered especially when everyone has a different agenda.

  • When problems are serious and complex, and both affect and require attention from a number of individuals and groups.

In this situation, there is a need to get people together to put their typical silos and personal interests to one side. There could be nobody in charge, but the group has to come up with a solution.

Obviously, the right timing will be necessary for collaborative leadership to succeed. When circumstances conspire to bring a situation to a crisis point that can break down barriers and convince otherwise-reluctant stakeholders that they need to collaborate.

  • When other attempts at solutions haven’t worked.

Sometimes other solutions have failed because of external conflict or the inability to get all the stakeholders together in the one room and on the one topic. This is where the idea of collaborative leadership is best.

  • When an issue affects a whole organisation or a whole community.

Everyone needs to be heard in these circumstances and under this model, people can have a voice and outline their ideas. In a community, there could be different values to consider as well.

  • When inclusiveness and empowerment are goals of the process from the beginning.

If the original intention has been to try and give voice or increase participation across a big group, then this type of leadership or collaborative process would be quite helpful. It provides a much-needed element of credibility to the people it is trying to reach.

Collaborative leadership trends change by the quarter which means CEOs need to be responsive to the concept and actively seek improvement as they see fit.

About the Author
Trent Bartlett  is a CEO leadership mentor at The Executive Connection. The world’s largest CEO network that inspires, transforms and underpins growth for its 1,200 Australian and New Zealand senior executive members, and over 20,000 CEOs around the world.