Looking for a shared goal with collaborative leadership

What is collaborative leadership? 

This is an approach to leadership that focuses on partnering with others to reach shared objectives. It involves encouraging open communication, and fostering a sense of teamwork.

Collaborative leaders focus on building strong relationships and creating an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their ideas and skills. 

It is not just about sharing power; it’s about making decisions with others, creating a culture of mutual accountability, and empowering all members to contribute to a common vision. 

The top five traits for a collaborative leader 

When you think about collaborative leaders, certain qualities come to mind that help them guide and support their teams effectively:

• Good listener: You pay attention to other people’s ideas and welcome diverse opinions, actively listening and showing empathy.
• Team-oriented: Prioritising the success of the group over your own achievements is natural to you. 
• Flexible: You can easily adapt to changing situations and needs. 
• Trustworthy: It is important for you to build and maintain trust within a team. 
• Encouraging: As a team player you like to motivate and support members, sharing information and expectations clearly and promptly. 

Why collaborative leadership works 

Collaborative leadership is particularly effective in organisations that prioritise teamwork and innovation, like creative industries and tech companies, or where complex problem-solving and adaptability are crucial, such as healthcare and project-based work. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook is a famously collaborative leader. He emphasises shared decision-making, welcoming others’ opinions and values teamwork with regular open communication with his immediate team and wider staff.  

Collaborative leadership has several strengths that make it an effective approach in many situations: 

• Enhanced creativity: When you bring diverse ideas together, you get innovative solutions. 
• Improved problem-solving: With multiple perspectives, you can tackle challenges more effectively. 
• Stronger team bonds: Collaboration helps you build trust and camaraderie. 
• Higher engagement: When you involve team members, they feel more committed. 
• Shared responsibility: By distributing tasks, you reduce individual stress. 
• Better decision-making: Collective input helps you make well-rounded decisions. 
• Increased flexibility: Your team can adapt quickly to changes. 

The challenges of collaborative leadership

While collaborative leadership has many benefits, it also comes with certain down sides that you need to manage: 

• Time-consuming: Reaching consensus can take longer than you might expect. 
• Potential conflicts: Diverse opinions can lead to disagreements that you need to resolve. 
• Co-ordination issues: Managing multiple inputs can be complex for you.
• Risk of groupthink: The desire for harmony might suppress dissenting views, which you need to watch out for and might actually help. 
• Leadership ambiguity: Shared leadership can sometimes lack clear direction, which you need to clarify. 
• Resource allocation: Balancing everybody’s needs can be challenging for you. 

Does collaborative leadership suit you? 

If you are a good listener, open-minded, and empathetic, this leadership style could be a great fit. However, if you prefer making quick decisions independently or find managing group dynamics challenging, you might face some difficulties with this approach. 

Collaborative leadership is about working together, valuing everyone’s input, and achieving shared goals. It can be a highly rewarding approach, but if it’s not for you then there are many more styles that you can study and develop. 

Discover more about collaborative leadership: 

The seven key competencies for collaborative leadership