What do collaborative leaders do differently?

One of the strong skills required in collaborative leaders is pPlaying the role of a linker - individuals that have ties to many different social worlds (Photo: Shutterstock)

Globalisation, the advent of social media, technology and the need for innovation have made collaboration more integral to businesses than ever before. Without the right leadership, collaboration can go haywire. So, what kind of leadership is required to allow a collaborative culture to thrive?

A Harvard Business Review research on ‘The Best Performing CEOs in the World’, found that collaborative leaders require strong skills in four key areas:

1.    Playing the role of a linker

2.    Attracting diverse talent

3.    Modelling collaboration at the top and,

4.    Managing in a manner that prevents teams from getting mired in debate

Linkers are those with ties to many different social worlds. It is not the number of people they know but their ability to link ideas, people and resources which would not bump into one another but could be very useful. This is very critical for collaboration. David Kenny, the president of Akamai Technologies, is one such example.

Some ways in which you can become a connector are

●    Attend conferences, fireside chats and forums outside of your functional speciality. Find yourself in events with cross-functional diversity.

●    Become part of global networks like YPO (Young Presidents’ Organisation), TiE ( The Indus Entrepreneur ), Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) etc.

●    Meet often with groups outside your day to day work like competitors, government officials, academia etc.

●    Sit on boards of other organisations. There are several organisations that assist with helping leaders being placed on boards. One such organisation I have worked with is www.boardoptions.com.

●    Regularly blog or write on forums about trends and ideas you encounter outside work. For example, certain Flipkart senior leadership teams participated in the delivery of their products alongside the delivery staff and then wrote about their experience and insights on LinkedIn.

●    Constantly read research and journals in the areas relevant to your organisations and curate the findings and communicate to your team.

Research has proven that diverse teams lead to improved performances provided they are led well. Leaders must have the ability to bring together people from different cultures, backgrounds, regions, disciplines and generations and leverage all that they have to offer. Danone, one of the French dairy companies that was part of the HBR research, encourages their country heads to present in their native language and costumes at global meets and invests in interpreters.

In India, regional diversity is both wide enough and challenging enough to work with. Yet, very often, many companies kill these valuable creative resources by subjecting them to a homogenisation process, and fail to recognise the harmful effects this can have on innovation and creativity.

For instance, many believe Nokia's former executive team comprising only Finnish executives was responsible for the company's failure to recognise the severity of the new smartphone threat.

Static non-diverse groups breed insularity which is detrimental to forward innovation. Leaders need to make a concerted effort to promote this mix by keeping teams fresh via regular infusion of new and different types of players.

While it is important for companies to support peer-to-peer collaboration, it can be counter-productive if the people that manage and lead teams do not collaborate themselves. In fact, Microsoft failed to produce a feasible tablet computer more than a decade ago due to inter-departmental competition to derail this project. Apple had just released its first computer which was a success.

Without aligning executives to a common goal, companies face the risk of overly competitive employees fighting to attain top-tier positions without taking the company’s own prospects and agenda into consideration.

Effective leaders bring this about by considering the following points:

●    The joint responsibilities that employees in a team might share beyond each of their individual goals.

●    The eradication of power struggles within a team.

●    The establishment of both performance and learning goals.

●    Reflection on collective goals or collective responsibilities.

Collaboration, in no way means wasting hours on end during unproductive meetings where finally, there is no concrete conclusion that can be agreed upon (Read: http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/how-to-create-a-culture-of-productive-meetings/ ). Effective leaders assume the role of directing and managing teams for best practices. They are innovative, and never restricted to the constraints of the company norms. Leaders need to ensure that diversity in the team eventually leads to concession rather than further debate during team meetings, which is what typically leads meetings to run over-time. Keeping control of the team without having to run an over-tight ship separates the collaborative leaders from the rest.

Having a difference in opinion, and a difference in cultural values adds a greater value to each project. It is finding the value behind collaboration that makes collaborative leadership so challenging yet rewarding. In the end, every leader eventually defines her own collaboration style that works best for them.