What does it take to inspire others to achieve success?

Organisations are realising the need to unleash their entire talent pool to accomplish their goals. To do this, organisations need to do more than connect, coordinate or cooperate. They need leaders who are able to inspire collaboration.

Collaboration is rooted in honest conversation and dialogue. It generates respect, sees strength in diversity, and allows for emergence of new ideas. Ideas are only useful if people are open to considering them. Openness is not about process or technology. It’s about an individual’s mindset.

Openness is a choice to aspire to beginner’s mind, rather than trying to build yourself up as an expert. This choice is based on one simple proposition: if you believe there is more power in the group you belong to than in standing alone, you choose openness and collaboration.

With that proposition comes a belief that those you work with are not only capable and motivated to do a good job, but that if allowed they will do more than you could ask.

How do leaders learn to lead in such a fast changing world?

As the world changes at an ever accellerating pace, leaders must adapt and change with it.  As organisations develop complex internal structures and build complicated external relationships - working across different cultures and landscapes - the leaders ability to inspire collaboration both within and outside their organisation becomes increasingly important. 

This new environment needs a new style of leadership - a new set of  behaviours, skills and talents.  It also needs a new kind of leadership development that encourages leaders to improve their ability to inspire collaboration aross borders, cultures and boundaries.

Collaborative leadership model

We have worked with hundreds of advanced or aspiring leaders in more than fifty private, public or social sector organisations. We have learned through our real, hands on experience that there is a simple, basic model of behaviour for highly effective collaborative leaders:

Leaders who wish to promote and inspire collaboration need to be role model collaborators themselves.

All of the key attitudes and behaviours of collaborative leaders all link to and emerge from this basic principle.