Copy of 6.5. Collaborative and inclusive leadership
In the video below, Linda Hill from Harvard Business School explains how collaborative leadership delivers sustainable innovation.
While the video is not focused on the NPO sector, you will pick up some leadership and collaboration threads from this module, as well as the leadership module. They will help you define characteristics that you can cultivate in your own leadership strategy in order to build a team that’s open to collaboration, as well as to lead collaborations with other organisations, so that innovation can take place.
Linda recommends the following:
- Recognise that ideas can come from anywhere
- Think about what you need to do to help others to be able to do collaborative work (innovation is not about solo genius, but a collaborative problem-solving process usually involving people with different points of view)
- Your mindset as a leader has to shift: you need to make space for others and their ideas
- The leader’s task is to create an environment in which other people’s ideas can be brought together
Extra resource:
For more tips and stories on collaborative and inclusive leadership, listen to this TED talk by Lorna Davis: “A guide to collaborative leadership”.
Lorna points out that leaders often see themselves as heroes, and operate as though they can solve problems alone, but that companies must see themselves as part of a whole system. True collaboration is subtle and complex and leaders need to recognise interdependence. Collaborative leaders set goals differently and work with others to solve shared problems. They let others know that they can bring their best selves to the table.
How can you apply Lorna’s tips to your own leadership?
