Leadership

Collaborative Leadership – Definition and Principles with Examples

by Tamanna Akther Habib

Collaborative leadership is a type of leadership that consists of a co- operation in between the leaders and the employees. Co-operation is necessary to establish the common goals that are shared among the leaders and the employees. The leaders should be able to work with people from other teams, branches in order to ensure that the workflows and the ideas are arranged without any doubt.

What is Collaborative Leadership?

It is a type of leadership that encourages a collective decision to be made for the betterment of the organization. Collaboration is necessary for an organization as it puts less pressure on one individual and provides equality to everyone who contributes for the organization which is similar to Democratic Leadership. The leaders of this leadership style acts as mentors instead of giving orders, handles the conflicts for progression, distributes responsibility fairly and builds a long lasting relationship among the employees which is same as Servant Leadership. It also follows the leadership styles of Transformational Leadership in which both the leaders and the employees come together to create different strategies and bring appropriate people for constructing new information and explain the visions of the organization.

8 Principles of Collaborative Leadership

The collaborative leadership is made up of eight fundamental principles in order to succeed in an organization. The principles are named below with brief descriptions:-

  1. An inclusive vision is the glue When the team members of an organization have a common idea or purpose which will bring benefits to all the stakeholders, it will serve as a guide for the leaders of that organization. The leaders can give up the idea of being in control and evaluate the purpose or the idea if needed. The leaders should also make their workplace as much engaging as possible. Although it may not be easy to transform from a command and control mindset, but it is very important to be interactive and involved in creating equality among the managers and the team members.
  2. Create networks, not boundaries: It is important for the collaborative leaders to realize that communities should be built, but not within the closed boundaries. An aligned network system should be made that includes all the stakeholders which will strengthen the relationships among all the organizations in working together. If a collaborative leader only considers some of the closest organizations, then they will never be able to predict the ongoing of the other organizations that are not included. The distribution of the authority and decision-making process that are as close to the customer will make an organization smarter, flexible and more adaptable.
  3. Focus more on asking good questions than giving the right answers: There is much significant information in various places to answer the questions correctly. Instead of being able to answer all the questions, building a potential on how to ask good questions is essential for the collaborative leaders. A good question is more worth than a quick answer as it leads to a way of generating innovative ideas and solutions to any problem.
  4. Open the flow of information: An organization is benefitted when their information is accessible to everyone. Employees and the team members are able to do their tasks when they have clear information on what needs to be done. Opening the flow of information will also help in creating innovative collaborations with the other organizations as well.
  5. Involve people in decisions that affect them: Everyone wants their organization to run successfully, and when they are given a chance they do their best to contribute their ideas. People develop a deeper sense of understanding of the issues and become more committed by implementing their decisions. When the employees see that their opinions are valued, they will support it with respect and admiration.
  6. Seek and utilize diversity: When a variety of information is combined, it creates a richer form of discussion, and stronger and relevant solutions. When the discussions produce innovative and a difference of opinion, and is focused on the issues rather than personalities it produces a set of creative ideas and solutions.
  7. Align your personal and public behavior: A collaborative leader should act in a way that whatever they say or do will become a public knowledge. Moral values and social etiquettes cannot be hidden within a person. There must be a thin line in between our personal and public behavior as the employees always look up to the collaborative leader as their role model.
  8. Treat people like human beings, not human resources: The health of the employees and team members are crucial as they are an important part of an organization. As they are human beings and not assets of the organization, and showing concern to them will help the organization to run successfully for a longer time period.

Collaborative Leadership Example

The key factor of this leadership is to work in collaboration with the employees in order to attain the common goals for the organization. For instance, a collaborative leader should encourage their employees to provide innovative ideas regarding the project that is being handled. There should be enough information given to the employees regarding the project so that they are accessible. The leaders should be trustworthy, respectable and tolerant to their employees. The health and the mental well-being of the employees should also be kept in account because without them the organization would collapse.

Examples of the Popular Collaborative Leaders

  1. Warren Buffet: Buffet had maintained his patience level throughout his career, which is one of the qualities of a collaborative leader. He did not hurry in order to get an instant success, but would observe his projects from the beginning to the end before finalizing them. He also had his plans of long-term goals to attain his goals that would last for a longer time period.
  2. Jeff Bezos: Bezos is a phenomenal entrepreneur who is resilient and attained success gradually by taking time. He also had a long-term plan of taking his business to the next level, by hiring a few employees with whom he collaborated and took his organization to a higher level of success, which is a quality of a collaborative leader.

Collaborative Leadership Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

  1. It provides a better division of labor: If a collaborative framework is present in a workplace, then the approaches of work division enhances. Engaging more number of people tends to put less pressure on everyone. By the equal distribution of responsibilities, the work is done faster and better by everyone.
  2. There is a higher level of creative input: There are higher chances of creativity when collaboration is present in an organization. The institution will be able to look onto the different innovative inputs instead of depending on one input. The collection of different ideas will provide more motivation and new ideas in an organization.

Disadvantages

  1. It encourages some workers to assume they have a leadership role: Many employees may tend to feel themselves as a leader as they have been given the freedom to come up with their own ideas. This may arise an issue as there may be conflicts among the employees rather than cooperation of working together. Thus, a tension will be created as everyone expects to be followed in this leadership, which is not possible every time.
  2. It may create instances of group thinking: When the group members come together to discuss on a project, they will often shift on the ideas provided by the strongest member of the group. Collaboration is not present when a single member of the group is continually provoking the ideas on to the other members of the group by taking over discussions and forcing their results.

Collaborative Leadership FAQs

What is the Role of a Collaborative Leader

The role of a collaborative leader is to collaborate with their employees to fulfill the targets of the organization. They should also encourage the employees rather than commanding them, provide them the access to the information, give importance to their ideas and pay attention to their mental and physical health.

What is a Good Example of a Collaborative Leader?

Abraham Lincoln is a perfect example of a collaborative leader as he did not see his own benefits and listened to the opinions of other people. He also followed his goals and kept his pride aside and thought according to the strategies to connect any project for longer purposes.

The Bottom Line

Collaborative leadership style is good for business sectors as it depends on everyone’ contribution and their ideas. However, it also has a drawback of the introduction of the financial motivation to enhance the active participation of the employees.

References

https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-ideas/collaborative-leadership/main
https://seapointcenter.com/8-principles-of-collaborative-leadership/
https://trainingindustry.com/articles/leadership/what-does-collaborative-leadership-look-like/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-collaborative-leaders-characteristics-famous-oded-ramraz?trk=public_profile_article_view
https://smallbusinessify.com/jeff-bezos-leadership-style/
https://brandongaille.com/15-collaborative-structure-advantages-and-disadvantages/
https://zipschedules.com/en/team-collaboration/collaborative-leadership-style.html
https://www.td.org/magazines/the-public-manager/abraham-lincoln-and-the-art-of-collaborative-leadership
https://zipchecklist.com/en/team-collaboration/collaborative-leadership-style.html