Pacesetter Matrix - Collaboration
Lennon & McCartney…Queen & David Bowie…Aerosmith & Run DMC…Band Aid…Eminem & Rihanna. The list could go on and on…
Throughout business, sports, the arts, there are a multitude of examples of the successes that collaboration can bring. When great minds come together with a common goal, outstanding results can follow.
When Nike signed Michael Jordan in 1984 it transformed an entire industry, revolutionising sports marketing. Jordan paved the way for all future athletes to make their fortune from sponsorship deals, and catapulted Nike to run the sportswear game with over 60% market share.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were academics who bonded over their passion for data mining. Page had a vision that a World Wide Web search engine could rank links based on how often they were being linked by other pages. With Brin’s help, the idea turned into PageRank, the foundational algorithm of Google Search. Fast forward 25 years and you have the second most valuable brand in the world.
Co-branding can be an effective strategy to grow business, raise awareness, and enter into new markets, but it must be a win-win situation for all parties involved. GoPro and Red Bull have a symbiotic as lifestyle brands - in particular, a lifestyle that's action-packed, adventurous, fearless. These shared values make them a perfect pairing for co-branding campaigns, especially those surrounding action sports.
The Renault-Nissan strategic alliance is a great example of collaboration success, demonstrating the importance of strategic partnerships, and the widespread benefits they could bring. The car manufacturers have stakes in each others’ companies and work together on product development and corporate strategy. Renault and Nissan now make up 10% of new car sales worldwide.
Today’s globalised and networked business environment means leaders have to manage diversity, both culturally and geographically. Collaborative leadership is an increasingly vital source of competitive advantage in today’s highly networked, team-based, and partnership-oriented business environments. Successful collaboration can significantly increase organisational agility and collective intelligence.
So what is collaborative leadership?
Global leadership consultancy Oxford Leadership defined collaborative leadership as the process of engaging collective intelligence to deliver results across organisational boundaries when ordinary mechanisms of control are absent. It’s grounded in a belief that all of us together can be smarter, more creative, and more competent than any of us alone, especially when it comes to addressing the kinds of novel, complex, and multi-faceted problems that organisations face today. Collaborative leaders aim to achieve organisational objectives by leveraging and fostering the power of diverse teams. Collaborative leaders enable colleagues to leverage their diverse range of knowledge, abilities, and experience to successfully collaborate by managing staff from different functions to solve challenges.
Arnoud De Meyer, former President of Singapore Management University, and Director of the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge outlined that collaborative leadership requires an understanding that others have capabilities and are prepared to share these with you in order to achieve change and innovation, and this on the condition that you work on an equal basis with them. It requires being willing to make investments in relationships, and being prepared to recognise peers’ contribution. A good collaborative leader is one that is able to influence and convince his or her peers, without falling into the trap of becoming manipulative.
Why is collaborative leadership so important?
Breaking down silos Think about the ‘TEAM’ acronym – Together Everyone Achieves More. Collaborative environments prove this mantra true. With the right leaders at the helm, people feel comfortable sharing their points of view. And this can lead to better outcomes, with a shared sense of purpose.
Boosting creativity When ideas from different departments are flowing, people are also more likely to disagree with each other. In the collaborative model, that can be a good thing. If teams can manage difficult conversations respectfully, the resulting creative tension can often result in some of the best solutions.
Empowering employees Giving a cross-functional team the chance to work together benefits everyone involved. Individuals feel empowered when making key decisions and more confident as they’re encouraged to think creatively and solve problems.
Boosting engagement According to Gallup, engaged teams are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than disengaged teams. One way to boost engagement is to give your co-workers a sense of ownership in their tasks. Collaborative leaders let employees have their say when deciding their aims and goals, meaning they become more invested in their work and the process.
Building trust across hybrid teams As workforces become increasingly scattered between office, frontline or remote working locations, collaborative leaders play an essential role in building trust. When people see others welcoming a wide range of perspectives, they can feel more confident their contributions will be well received, no matter what their location. There’s never been a greater need to make everyone feel included.
Managing change in modern matrix organisations, where the core management group is not necessarily in one location, and where power is more evenly distributed, will require managers than can live with ambiguity and can trigger action through collaboration. It calls on leaders to use the power of influence rather than positional authority to engage and align people, focus their teams, and deliver results. Success depends on creating an environment of trust, mutual respect, and shared aspiration in which all can contribute fully and openly to achieving collective goals. Leaders must thus focus on relationships as well as results, and the medium through which they operate is high-quality conversation.
The collaborative leader:
Creates a climate for discovery and emergence
Evokes and honours diverse perspectives
Asks powerful questions
Suspends premature judgment
Explores assumptions and beliefs
Embraces ambiguity and not-knowing
Articulates emergent patterns and solutions
