Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Creating a culture of open collaboration
WHEN you appoint people to work in your company or your team, you choose the best for the job – the smartest, most qualified, most experienced person – because that’s what will make your team shine and give your company that all-important edge.
The question asked by many is why then do some leaders still feel the need to lead from the top down?
Today, the top-down approach where senior leadership makes all the decisions and the rest are purely there to execute is a relic of the past. Leaders employ incredibly smart people – and we do that very intentionally. To exclude them in decision-making is not only counter-productive; it’s also an incredible waste of intentional investment.
Moreover, in diverse workplaces it’s important to have effective leadership that can adapt to different situations and personalities. Leaders should be aware of when a directive and when a coaching style is most appropriate. Generational differences are another aspect that leaders should welcome. In today’s workplace, the workforce comprises five generations with unique perspectives, work styles and expectations.
So how do you create a culture of open collaboration? Here are some interesting insights:
Actively listen
The first step in creating collaboration is to ensure buy-in from key stakeholders. This may not always mean unilateral alignment and agreement, but considering and debating the different views of the skilled experts you have employed is crucial.
When all stakeholders have been heard and understand why a decision has been made, it’s easier to ensure commitment to the cause, which in turn drives accountability.
This empowers the workforce – giving people the authority to make decisions because they have bought into a common objective and know their views and input are valued. This alignment
means everyone works towards a common goal, understands the role they play and will be intentional in executing that vision.
Open and honest
Leaders are not perfect – and your willingness to be transparent will show people they are not alone in their struggles. Being vulnerable and having personal conversations not only creates a culture of empathy, it also means people are more open to ask for, seek and share advice.
When people feel valued, they want to work. This drives collaboration and accountability across an entire organisation.
It all starts with mutual respect, where people know they are valued and feel comfortable having robust conversations. Be honest and as transparent as possible about who you are as a leader, and ask for advice when needed. You will soon find this becomes a two-way street.
Up your EQ
Flexible working is here to stay and has added a new dimension to team management. Organisations continue to mature in their approach, as it takes a different set of skills to be effective in this new hybrid environment.
Your ability to influence your people and ensure you are getting the best out of them becomes more critical when teams work remotely, as does your adeptness at picking up signals of stress or burnout.
Leaders today need to use their emotional intelligence (also referred to as emotional quotient or EQ) and intuition as much as their other strategies and tools – so consider upskilling the leaders in your organisation in these “softer” skills. People matter; they are the lifeblood of your entire ecosystem.
Regular check-ins
The last thing you want as a leader is for mistakes to get covered up because people are afraid to admit to their faults – you want to be able to fix problems as quickly as possible.
But how do you ensure people are willing to admit to blunders?
Organisational culture and the previous points play a big role, but we have also found that setting milestones and having regular check-ins means any slip-ups can be attended to quickly. Then, we roll up our sleeves and solve the problem together.
Ensure that these milestone monitoring systems are in place, and never blame someone for a slip up – instead offer support to help them fix it, but ensure that no mistake is repeated.
Client extension
Collaboration is not only something that needs to happen inside an organisation, it’s also critically important in client relationships. You need to understand clients’ challenges and solve them with a war room-type approach where all role-players get together and give their input.
This is critical at the beginning of any initiative to ensure everyone is aiming in the same direction, but there also needs to be continual engagement until the point of delivery. Don’t work in a silo. Should your client’s needs change, you need to be agile and nimble enough internally to re-align to these new needs – truly putting that culture of collaboration to the test.
Every leader today knows the importance of employing the best people for the job, and these strategies will help ensure you get the best out of them. Collaboration is not just a corporate buzzword – it’s an essential leadership strategy that will ensure your company and its people can thrive.