Leaders often find themselves involved in projects or partnerships in which they don’t have direct authority but must use their technical competence, relationship skills and political smarts to keep a team focused and produce a desired goal. Management educator Russ Linden, Ph.D., recommends the following in his article “The Discipline of Collaboration.”
Articulate the project’s purpose in a way that excites others. Find ways to energize others so they are willing to forgo current priorities and invest in this one.
Get the right people to the table and keep them there. Attract and retain those with the talents and commitment to make the concept real, not just the leaders with the right titles.
Help the participants design a transparent, credible process. Pay careful attention to process. Do all members have input for the meeting agendas? Who chairs the meetings? Where are they held? Members watch such decisions to determine whether the effort is a true partnership or slanted toward one party’s interests.
See that there’s a senior champion for the effort. The core group may have the energy and talents to create the new program, but not senior leadership’s perspective, authority and command of resources.
Help everyone engage in collaborative problem solving. Make creative use of their diverse viewpoints when differences arise; don’t automatically settle for the easy consensus to paper over disagreement.
Provide confidence, hope and resilience. Effective collaborative leaders are tough-minded optimists. They accept that there are dozens of reasons why the initiative might falter, but they radiate an expectation of success that becomes contagious. More important than technical brilliance or political smarts is their dogged persistence and resilience.
