Embracing Collective Leadership: The Who, Why and How

Collective leadership empowers everybody to take an active part in guiding the group. You might be tempted to resist it due to a perceived loss of control or power, but collaborating does not weaken you as a leader. In fact, when you practice it in a way that fits your team, it strengthens your position and frees you up to do the things only you can do.

Who Uses Collaborative Leadership?

You can find at least some element of collective leadership in many organizations — even the most traditional. A hierarchical corporation might feature a collaborative relationship between the C-suite level executives and the board of directors.

If you were the CEO in a traditional corporation, your success would depend on everyone in a small circle contributing to your vision and guiding your company's culture. That's the core idea of collective leadership.

Why Are Collaborative Workplaces Popular?

This type of leadership is here to stay, partly because it works. When applied correctly, it results in more engaged team members and better overall communication.

In fact, one of the major forces driving the trend towards flatter, more collective leadership is the improvement in communications technology. The tools now exist to instantly share detailed materials, ideas and directions across entire enterprises.

With shared workspaces and other productivity tools, every member of every team can get more involved in mission-level discussions than ever before. Most companies have found this allows access to important ideas and input that would otherwise be delayed getting to the top, or else, lost entirely.

How Can You Adapt to a Collective Leadership Environment?

It is certainly not easy or natural to share the duties you once thought of as specific to leadership-level positions. For example, you may be reluctant to rely on a peer feedback system to reinforce cultural standards. You may not be ready to let others refine or redefine your personal vision of success. However, with practice, you can own these changes and become a more effective leader than ever before.

I often approach leadership challenges by comparing them to golf. I believe the sport has a lot to teach about leadership and vice versa.

In golf, you must know how to use every club in your bag. This doesn't happen overnight — it takes practice.

When you're starting out with a new club, you first learn its capabilities. After that, you take a few days to get used to its unique feel. Then, finally, you're ready to put it in play: To apply your knowledge and practice to real-world situations.

This is similar to the process of gaining a new skill as a leader. Specifically, you can fully embrace collective strategies once you understand:

·         What this form of leadership can do,

·         The way it fits into your personal practice

·         And the situations in which it is most effective for the unique needs of your organization.

It takes practice and dedication to master, but, in the end, collective leadership is just one more club in your leadership bag. Like any other addition to your set, you'll soon wonder how you ever lived without it.