Ch. 2: Collaborative Role (2 of 2)

COLLABORATIVE ROLE

Now let's discuss the leader characteristics that would be important in a collaborative role. This role would be the project managers and team leaders of an organization that is more horizontally aligned (Daft, 2018). This style of leadership seems to be picking up as a new means to manage companies and organizations. Through this style more decisions are made cohesively, as a team, and information is shared freely with each employee being given a voice and a way to contribute (Moseley, Collaborative Leadership). In this environment the actual leaders may take more of a hands-off, less directive approach by lending their perspective is a way that is not overbearing and allows others to develop collaboration skills. 

Looking back to the traits and characteristics discussed in the text that would be important to have in this type of role, the first to come to mind is...

Cooperation and collaboration often go hand in hand. Influencing the members of one's team to become active participants in a group setting isn't as easy as it sounds. People generally have an array of different personality types and getting each of them to contribute is often easier said than done. While it was listed as two different social characteristics on the exhibit in the text, cooperativeness and ability to enlist cooperation are going to be combined for the specific leadership trait for the purpose of this blog. 

Another important leader characteristic for this role type would be, People Skills. The text describes this as sociability and interpersonal skills and describes this use of people skills as necessary to build relationships, network, and obtain agreement in teams (Daft, 2018). Forbes has a great article on 20 specific people skills that are great in the work environment. A few that stick out that are needed for the purpose of this leadership role is strong communication skills, active listening, flexibility, persuasion, problem solving, and negotiation skills (Smith, 2014). I know I combined several traits in there, but they are all good interpersonal skills needed to be an effective collaborative leader. 

And lastly, the other characteristic I chose for this blog that is needed for a great collaborative leader is...

In the text it is listed as perseverance and tenacity. Forbes calls this trait the one that really matters and can mean the difference between success and failure while also making teams thrive if present (Eberhardt, 2018). Like what was discussed above regarding drive to excel for the operational leader, grit and perseverance are what pushes the collaborative leader. Whereas the operational leader drive might push them to micromanage, a tenacious collaborative leader will invest more in their employees to build them up so they can accomplish all tasks at hand. 

Both styles have their pros and cons and both are needed at various times and in different environments. 

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