Are You Determined or Is the Decision Determined?
Collaborative leadership is inherently different than other leadership styles and is the one we need most often right now.
A collaborative leader is someone who can reliably show up, bring people together, know when and how to move a conversation forward, and inspire others even when the path is unclear.
I am open to others' ideas on this definition of “collaborative leadership.” The last part, "even when the path is unclear," is important. Too often, decisions are made before considering others' input. Sometimes, leaders push the group towards a predetermined outcome.
Annie and I, along with our colleague and friend Liz Weaver at the Tamarack Institute, have co-designed and co-facilitated a curriculum focused on systems-change collaboration for over three years now. To date, we have learned alongside dozens of community change makers who work in local collaborative groups to tackle different community issues. Time and time again, participants share their struggles to build trust and get buy-in, only to have an a-ha moment when they realize that the people they are in collaboration with came together with an outcome already decided.
It’s human nature to want a clear path, but it emerges when we create appropriate processes, not mandates or declarations.
A colleague of ours recently received a large grant after getting partners to write letters of support. The grant requires those same partners to collaborate even though they weren’t part of the decision-making process for deciding to apply or what was included in the application. It should not be surprising then to know the collaboration stumbled out of the gate. The expectations were pre-determined, and it is taking some resetting after partners originally came together without buy-in, commitment, or agency in the process.
Unless you’re leading a military or a group through a life-threatening situation, utilizing the collective wisdom of a group to make decisions will be more sustainable and successful than a pre-determined, do-what-I-say approach. Collaborative leaders emphasize the importance of guiding a process of discovery not guiding people. They help others to hold their truths lightly and be open to different ideas and outcomes.
When we see an injustice or community issue that needs attention, as collaborative leaders, we should all show up determined to make a difference with others, collaboratively, but without a pre-determined outcome.
