In this 9th huddle, I focus on the Leader Character trait of collaboration, per the definition from Ivey Business School at Western University:
- Collaboration – Values and actively supports development and maintenance of positive relationships among people. Encourages open dialogue and does not react defensively when challenged. Can connect with others at a fundamental level, in a way that fosters the productive sharing of ideas. Recognizes that what happens to someone, somewhere, can affect all.
To appreciate the above as a required Leader Character Trait, it’s important to understand the basic premise of what collaboration is and isn’t, from “How to Capture Value from Collaboration, Especially if You’re Skeptical About It”, by Heidi K. Gardner and Herminia Ibarra. From these experts, we understand the following:
Collaboration is a way of working that attracts and involves people outside of one’s formal control, or outside of one’s organization, or outside of one’s area of expertise to accomplish common goals.
Collaboration is not:
- interpersonal style – people may incorrectly view collaboration as a leadership style in which relationships take precedence over the task at hand. But collaboration is not consensus. On the contrary, clarity about where the final decisions live is one of the most critical enablers of efficient teamwork.
- simple cross-selling – the practice of suggesting new services or products, usually under another colleague’s purview, to an existing client. This sort of simple hand-off is not equivalent to working across organizational or functional silos to holistically tackle complex and challenging scenarios for the company.
- always the answer – collaboration is suitable for certain tasks and unsuitable for others. Too often, people will try to collaborate on everything, and wind up in endless meetings, debating ideas, and struggling to find a clear path forward.
In “Turn Your Group into a True Team,” by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback, we learn that collaboration comes naturally to work groups that have evolved into true teams. Here is what Linda Hill and Kent Lineback observe regarding true teams and collaboration:
- Collective work – by going beyond mere cooperation and coordination, collective work produces more innovative and productive outcomes that exceed the simple sum of individual efforts.
- Mutual commitment means members hold themselves and each other jointly accountable for the team’s performance. They share a genuine conviction that “we” will succeed or fail together, and that no individual can succeed while the team fails.
- Requirements to build a strong team:
- Purpose & Goals: A common, worthwhile purpose creates a sense of doing something important together. Specific, challenging team goals based on that purpose to create a sense of being on an important journey together. Without purpose and goals, no group will become a team.
- Clarity on roles, about how the work is done, and about how members interact. When these crucial elements are in place, groups can become true teams: communities that exert strong influence on members’ attitudes and behaviors.
Collaborative qualities include the following: cooperative, collegial, open-minded, flexible, and interconnected. To conclude this Huddle, here are some actions that you can take to build these qualities in your workplace and to further apply and practice them as a key Leader Character trait.
1. Ensure your teams are bound by a genuine sense of “we”. Explore the following:
- Are we mutually committed to a compelling and worthwhile purpose?
- Do we know not just which task we must perform, but who will benefit from our work?
- Do we believe that if we disappear today, the world would be different tomorrow?
- Are we pursuing clear goals based on that purpose, and do we have plans in place for achieving them?
- Does everyone know how the team does its work?
- Does everyone understand their roles and responsibilities?
- Are work processes clear?
- Do we share a set of values and beliefs about what we expect of each other an how we treat each other?
- Does everyone know how we are doing?
2. Ensure your people leaders are fostering communication, collaboration, and cooperation within their own departments, and across the enterprise.
3. Do not ignore team members as individuals. While it’s human nature that we all want to belong to a group, we also want to be recognized for our distinct contributions.
- Get to know each member uniquely — in the context of the team and its work.
About Hutton’s Huddle:
Based on inquiries and requests from my past, present, and future colleagues and business partners, I will be adding my take on successful Leadership strategies and tactics to the LinkedIn community. The objective is to spark meaningful discussion and, in tandem, both share and learn from this community. This series will include written articles, videos, and other media to illustrate Leadership concepts, both in theory and reality. Specific nod to Ivey Business School at Western University for the Leader Character Framework.