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I experienced the power of collaboration as a young executive. I was promoted to vice president the same day my boss was promoted to senior vice president. Immediately he was dealing with building a new team, changing technology, developing new business, making daily changes in staffing models and initiating business process improvements. He was very successful because he was able to be collaborative with others across the organization as well as reward and reinforce his seven direct reports (four VP's and three directors) for their collaboration.
Many believe that collaboration is a very important ingredient of successful company cultures.
Research from Deloitte suggests that employee collaboration produces greater satisfaction among employees with the final work product. What does this mean for the leader? It brings to mind three roles for the leader: exemplar, expert and executive.
The exemplar role asks that the leader live the spirit of collaboration. In all her interactions the leader ensures that all sharing of data/information establishes an atmosphere that benefits everyone associated with the project or activity. She shares experiences as an example of being open. The bottom line is that she behaves in "the extreme": "eating, drinking and sleeping collaboration" so the whole world can observe effective behavior throughout the work environment.
An enterprise may benefit substantially when a leader is an expert collaborator. This is true because expertness will establish coaching ability. Whether the coaching be live or electronic, it will improve employee efforts toward collaboration. Another essential consideration here is that the expert can be a trainer for employees needing to learn an entire set of collaboration skills. The expert role may go a long way in extending a collaborative environment for the enterprise.
You could write a book about the executive role of the leader (as did Chester Barnard and Peter Drucker). When considering collaboration, it is fairly clear that the focus begins with execution. The leader ought to encourage all collaborators to exchange and share with enthusiasm and energy. A lot of planning, organizing and coordinating patterns will need to be established. Organizing will be necessary to make sure that the appropriate people are involved based upon the task requirements. Planning would be necessary to determine focus on an existing effort or a new, even eccentric, idea. Coordination could ensure future use of the results from the shared experience throughout the enterprise.'
The final point to be made cuts across all three roles, and probably all other considerations that the leader may encounter as collaborations continuously evolve. The leader may want to keep her eyes and ears open to maintain awareness of the ebb and flow of team members and their evolving collaborative experiences. You may want to do this to keep their energy high.
Are you ready to deliver on the 3 Es?
Robert C. Preziosi, D.P.A., is Professor of Management in the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, and can be reached at preziosi@nova.edu