Collaboration: What Leaders Need to Succeed in Business
Written by Phil Geldart, Eagle’s Flight CEO
In this post from our series “The 8 Principles of Leadership You Need to Succeed in Business,” we’ll be discussing how executives can be more effective with respect to collaboration. Consider these six areas on which to focus:
1. Leadership
When groups are working together to achieve something specific, they can be far more effective when there’s an identified leader. The leader can take responsibility for deciding when it’s time to move from discussion to action; for making a final decision from among several options if there’s not one immediately obvious to everybody; for helping to ensure that everyone has a chance to present his or her point of view; and to make sure the discussion stays on topic.
Every team needs a designated leader, and the leader carries responsibility for the team’s final outcome. The leader must ensure that the team functions effectively, stays focused on its goal, and delivers its mandate. While the leader carries the final responsibility to ensure the mandate is achieved, the members of the team have a responsibility to support the leader in the achievement of that objective.
2. Followership
If you have a group of people where everybody wants to be the leader or is acting as the leader, it is hard for the group to be collaborative. The group ends up with each person pulling in his or her own direction; the group generally becomes frustrated and goes nowhere. However, simply identifying the leader doesn’t help if everybody else isn’t willing to then follow appropriately.
Following does not mean blindly doing what you’re told. Rather, it means recognizing that when the leader has to exert the authority of that position to make a decision, or provide direction, you as the follower are willing to follow that direction and trust your leader’s ability. Learning to be a good follower is great training for learning to be a good leader.
On a team, each member is responsible for working together for the benefit of the group. There is no place for individual egos to dominate; rather, each person on the team needs to understand that he or she is there to support the whole, under the direction of the leader. The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts, and all of the individual parts must recognize that they are there to serve the whole and not their own interests. This attitude on the part of each team member is essential to the team’s success.
3. Communication
Words often have different meanings to different people, so even group members who are well-intentioned do not necessarily communicate as effectively as they would like without working hard at it. Working at communication ensures that there are no misunderstandings or misinterpretations, and that time is spent productively, instead of bickering or rehashing topics that have become unclear simply because of poor communication.
Communication within a team is the responsibility of all the members. It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that communication is effective and frequent. It is each team member’s responsibility to do everything possible to speak with clarity and provide all the necessary information available when questions or issues arise needing input. Each individual needs to understand that he or she carries the responsibility to ensure that the other individuals on the team have all the information they need to be as successful as possible.
4. Have Vision
It’s much more exciting when a group has a vision that it is working toward. This provides energy, enthusiasm, anticipation, and motivation for the group to work hard to see the vision come to pass. Each person needs to spend time to really understand the vision, and why it’s important to that individual. Visions are usually motivating and should be the foundation for most significant action.
The team’s vision, the statement of its reason to be, defines why the team was initiated and articulates the big-picture statement of what the team is committed to achieving. It needs to create passion, excitement, and enthusiasm in its members and reinforce for them why it is they are working so hard together.
Visions drive actions. Share them. Refine them. Understand them, and then work together to see them materialize.
5. Goals
A vision can only become reality when there is a series of steps to get you there from where you are now. The vision is extremely important because it provides direction; the steps are also extremely important because they provide the specific action that you will take to see that vision come to pass. After the vision is clear, then you need to decide what specific steps you will be taking, phrased as action-oriented goals or objectives.
There could be five or twenty-five steps that have to be taken before the vision can be realized. The steps then become your focus. The realization of the vision only comes as a result of the rigorous discipline of doing each individual step well, and in sequence. As each goal is achieved, move on to the next, knowing that the cumulative achievement of each of these goals in sequence will allow realization of the vision. As such, these goals need to be clear, actionable, measurable, and specifically spelled out.
The goal itself may not engender passion, but its achievement reinforces the conviction that the next goal is obtainable and, ultimately, so is the vision. Goals play an important part for each team in that they provide immediate focus for their action. Everyone agreeing to a written statement of what you’re about to do ensures all the rowers are rowing the boat in the same direction.
6. Commitment
Once the decision has been made on the direction to be taken, and the steps to follow have been identified, each individual has to be fully committed to deliver against those steps. Very often, each step requires help from other members of the group, and if you are unwilling to give your wholehearted support, that step won’t be accomplished on time or as intended. Each individual plays an important role in seeing the overall vision come to pass.
Each team member has to be fully committed to the achievement of each of the goals, and ultimately the realization of the vision. This full commitment means that members of the team remain unanimous, working together; they do not allow other objectives to sidetrack them from their task; they remain consistent in their effort, not sometimes “hot” and sometimes “cold” in their efforts; and they constantly bring their enthusiasm to bear. This represents commitment to the team’s objectives on the part of each individual.
Full collaboration requires full commitment. Anything less diminishes the group’s effectiveness, and so impacts the finished product.
Together, these six components of collaboration build another principle of leadership. In the next instalment, I will be discussing “continuous improvement.”
