The New Workplace Demands A Collaborative Leadership Style
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock
The hierarchal style of leading organizations is dying out. New leadership skills must be learned in order to keep up with the vertical organizational structures of the future. Leaders are struggling with how to create a collaborative culture that is focused on the long term success of the organization.
This article discusses the leadership solutions that will assist leaders in accelerating their learning curve of using collaboration techniques to reverse the lack of teamwork that exists in most organizations.
Creating opportunities for today’s diverse workplace to work in a more collaborative manner is the ideal method leaders need to focus on. The art of collaboration needs to be taught at every level within an organization in order to ensure long term success. When the economy was booming and jobs were plentiful, individual talent was enough to help an aspiring leader leap frog to the top of an organization. Today’s reality is that individual talent can no longer serve as the criteria for upward movement. Leaders of the future must be well versed in how to lead others in a collaborative manner.
What has changed in the workplace that creates the need for greater collaboration?
Organizations that are thriving have discovered that the old corporate hierarchal structure is evolving into a vertical model. In order to survive, organizations must get people working together in a more collaborative approach to solve the challenges . Placing a focus on teams and groups to ensure the best ideas surface and are implemented is proving to be a more efficient way of working. The requirement to work lean and mean, with fewer people resources is the new leadership mantra.
In order to create a culture where collaboration becomes the catalyst for achieving greater business results, leaders must learn:
- How to influence the behaviors of others to ensure their contributions achieve high performance results
- How to communicate in a manner that people find engaging and inspirational
Influencing the behaviors of others for the purpose of achieving greater collaboration requires leaders to first demonstrate the behaviors they desire. Do you behave in a collaborative manner with your peers? Your staff watches your interactions with your peers to determine how sincere you are about working well with others for the good of the organization. To be the effective role model as a leader in this area you must:
- Be willing to openly and confidently share your ideas without concern for getting immediate credit
- Be open to opportunities to help someone else take on a leadership role
- Be cognizant of finding opportunities to actively engage others to share their insight
Communication remains the number one weakness of most leaders today. Collaborative leaders understand that their communication style must inspire others to want give more. The ability to engage others in a manner that creates synergy and teamwork is so needed. To be a good collaborative communicator you must:
- Find out what matters most to your staff regarding their career aspirations
- Find ways to demonstrate that you understand how to engage with all types of people
- Find opportunities to discuss the real world challenges your organization faces in a manner that is authentic and inspiring
Are you ready to learn to be the collaborative type of leader that is so needed today?
Tags: collaborative leadership style, communication, leadership
Comments (4)
4 Responses to “The New Workplace Demands A Collaborative Leadership Style”
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Jhonny Peralta Stats Says:
August 11th, 2010 at 8:52 pmIts very informative and interesting article.all the points are very useful. Simple but very effective writing. Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
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Alvin Woodend Says:
October 17th, 2010 at 4:52 amI actually appreciate your writing style. actually a good post! Thanks!
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Im thankful for the article post.Much thanks again. Awesome.