Nowadays, more and more efforts are made to create a peaceful and as healthy work environment as possible, which is why the act that centered decisions on just one person seems to be passing into disuse.
Collaborative leadership defines a management approach in which the leaders of a company work together to make decisions and look towards a common goal for the future. This is a very different concept from traditional leadership which requires employees to follow only the orders of the main leader to make all business decisions.
Collaborative leadership teams are often composed of people from different areas of the company, such as marketing, legal or human resources. This type of diversity is one of the great strengths of the collaborative leadership model.
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Quick Links
- Why collaborative leadership matters - Open communication - Collaboration - Practice collaborative leadership in the workplace - Get feedback from your team - Use the right tools
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Why collaborative leadership matters
Being able to tap into the combined talents of several skilled people when making important decisions is better for business than relying on the wisdom of an individual, however wise he may be.
It's simply a numbers game - more people means more ideas, more ideas means a greater chance that an idea will be the idea that will take your business to the next level.
Characteristics shared by collaborative leaders
So, what are the attributes to look out for when evaluating potential members of your leadership team? Here are the two key characteristics of a collaborative leader:
# 1 Open communication
Effective collaborative leaders go to great lengths to ensure that lines of communication remain open during business hours and often outside of them. This kind of dedication to open communication is a crucial element for successful collaborative leadership. Leadership team members are constantly exchanging ideas with each other. If someone is unavailable for a long period of time, it can be a significant hindrance in the creative process.
# 2 Collaboration
Once the final decision is made by a collaborative leadership team, it is important that everyone has a united front with the rest of the company. Dissent of any kind can severely weaken people's trust in the team and sow doubts among employees about the wisdom of the decision that has been made.
How to become a collaborative leader: 3 golden tips
We defined collaborative leadership, explained why it is important, and shared some of the qualities that skilled leaders have in common. Sounds like a good way to run a business, right? We will now cover some of the steps required to implement a collaborative leadership model in the workplace.
# 1 Practice collaborative leadership in the workplace
There will undoubtedly be a lot of trial and error at first, but the only way to know if collaborative leadership is right for your business is to go ahead and give it a try.
You can follow these steps:
1-Start by gathering your team and setting goals for the first few months.
2-Then, define the protocols for decision making and idea generation, and stick to them.
Finally, be open to receiving feedback from employees on the effectiveness of the collaborative leadership model in your workplace to further improve this leadership model and the company itself.
# 2 Get feedback from your team
Decisions made by your leadership team, of course, will affect everyone in your company. That's why it's important to ask feedback from all of your employees on how things are going.
One way to do this is to send an email survey with questions like "On a scale of 1 to 10, do you rate the leadership team's performance?" or “Do you prefer our new collaborative leadership model to our old model? Why or why not? ".
Collecting feedback from your entire team will show them that you value their opinion, which in turn will increase job satisfaction among your employees.
# 3 Use the right tools
It is important for strong leadership that you understand and inform yourself about the technologies that are involved in your business. You can then improve the way they are used to get the most benefit.
The Voxloud PBX is the ideal solution to allow everyone to work in the most fast and linear way possible, without hitches, falling lines or undeliverable messages.
It is a real jolly for your company, which will bring various benefits, both in the short and long term, whether you work in the office or if you have a team sound the world.
There are many leaders who manage their companies directly from home and use the cloud phone systems to make group video conferences and always keep abreast of ongoing projects.
Leaders can take advantage of video calling but it is also the cloud PBX that allows everyone to be able to work remotely (if they had physical phones and were linked to their use to work, they would not be able to do remote working).
In addition, they can integrate the PBX with other productivity apps, they can check call details to improve performance and record calls for use in training. There are many things collaborative leadership groups can take advantage of from cloud PBX.
And if it's Voxloud, they don't even have to waste time with technicians and configurations. Everything just works.
Activating it is very easy: just 59 seconds and your cloud phone system is ready to be used.
