There are many well-meaning, talented and skilled leaders who feel like only they have the answers. They don’t ask for help and their competitive instinct kicks in whenever someone offers assistance or suggests working on a project together. There’s nothing horrible about wanting to excel on your own but it can limit your organization’s ability to grow and make valuable connections. You get to decide what kind of leadership style you practice, and that will predict what kind of results you get. To see what might work best, let’s look at some examples of competitive and self-aware, collaborative leadership and how you might benefit from practicing the latter approach.
Signs You’re a Competitive Leader
- Always strive to be the best, above all others.
- You’re a pioneer and enjoy doing things on your own.
- Hesitant to share information or resources with other organizations.
- Decline receiving help when another organization offers.
- Miss or don’t seek opportunities for collaboration.
- Feel threatened when another organization offers the same services.
- Working with other organizations isn’t generally on your radar.
- You think twice before referring a client to another organization.
- You dominate any collaboration with another organization.
Many strong and successful organizations function on this model and do great things. What they may not yet realize is that they can add one component to become even more successful, collaboration. Here are some of the qualities of collaborative leadership.
Signs You’re a Self-Aware, Collaborative Leader
- You call on other organizations to help you.
- You look for opportunities to work with others.
- You don’t hesitate to refer people to other organizations.
- You don’t feel threatened when someone else offers similar services, you look for ways to compliment each other.
- You build mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations.
- You want all organizations, including your own, to succeed.
- You build a network to improve service delivery to clients.
- You’re able to grow and address larger problems because you have other organizations backing you up.
Think about which approach most closely matches your leadership style. Being competitive can help you strive for excellence and build a strong organization. Being collaborative helps you join with other organizations to increase your ability to serve people. When you merge the two you become a collaborative leader, which helps you in the following ways.
Benefits of Being a Self-Aware, Collaborative Leader
- Positive relationships with other organizations.
- Pooling of resources.
- Greater capacity to serve clients because of expanded network.
- You don’t have to do everything on your own.
- You have access to the brain power and insights of many more people.
- Reduced duplication of services.
- Other professionals seek you out because they know you’re a person who brings people together.
- You create a sense of community.
The shift from a competitive to a self-aware, collaborative approach is a big one for many people, often because they haven’t had a lot of experience connecting with other entities. Leaders can make the shift anytime they want, all it takes is a desire to leave the castle walls and be open to working with others. The effect of collaboration is profound. It helps organizations move from being a single player to being part of a larger team working together to make a difference. What will you do to encourage self-aware, collaborative leadership in your organization?
Cheers,
Guy
