Collaborative Leadership

We’ve been seeing more articles on a practice called Collaborative Leadership. What is it, why is it important and how do you implement it?

Collaborative leadership is a management practice that aims to bring managers, executives, and staff out of silos to work together. In collaborative workplaces, information is shared organically, and everyone takes responsibility for the whole.

As I was researching the topic for this article, I ran across a program offered by Harvard professional development. You can find the link to the registration here if interested: https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/programs/collaborative-leadership-developing-an-empowered-and-agile-organization/#outcomes

I also found a TED talk by Lorna Davis that I think does a terrific job differentiating between heroes and leaders and how dangerous it is to think, let alone rely on, one person having “the” answer. She shows why we need “radical interdependence” to make real change happen. I encourage you to watch this: https://www.ted.com/talks/lorna_davis_a_guide_to_collaborative_leadership

What I love about what Lorna talks about in this segment is the difference between how a hero announces a goal and then the well-thought-out and detailed plan on how the goal will be achieved. The “big reveal” if you will. Whereas in collaborative leadership, the leader will announce a well-thought-out goal that all can rally around, noting that there is no plan but knowing that the team will work together to come up with the plan to achieve the goal. Oftentimes with better results and efficiency.

Early in my career when working as an employee at various corporations, I embraced the hero leadership approach. It made me feel special, needed, important and powerful. It is highly addictive and why so few leaders can escape it.

Then, a CEO who I worked for asked me to attend a workshop on agile software development with the developer team at Menlo Innovations in Ann Arbor Michigan (https://menloinnovations.com/). I was confused about what a sales guy would do at a software development workshop but it intrigued me so I went. While the coding lingo was way over my head, I did learn a ton about storyboarding and the benefits of SCRUM.

I used what I learned from that experience and did a ton of reading on Agile and SCRUM. It helped greatly that during that time, SCRUM was growing beyond software development and becoming a key component in other fields such as project management, research, sales, marketing, and advanced technologies.

This approach help me answer my problem of how to be a sales and organizational management consultant in industries in that I had zero experience. I could no longer rely on hero leadership. I had to depend on collaborative leadership and today, I’m a recovering hero leader and fully embrace the collaborative approach.

I find this approach to be highly energetic, incredibly more effective and efficient, and perhaps best of all I don’t have to think of all the answers to problems. I help develop a goal and use a framework I’ve refined over the years to have my client teams detail the plan to achieve the goal. The buy-in is instantaneous, the process is highly rewarding, and the failures practically zero in the last 20 years of myself using this approach.

I find the people I work with grow personally and professionally. They are more engaged and take ownership of the execution of the plan. When we run into issues, they rally together to help solve the problem, not point fingers at each other. And when they win, the win is that much more fulfilling because they were all part of it vs sitting on the sidelines watching the heroes run the plays.

I’ve grown as a result of using the collaborative leadership approach. While I’m not completely cured of my hero tendencies, I can honestly say that our teams would never achieve the results they’ve achieved if I didn’t get out of their way, and we’re all better for it. Especially me.

I would encourage you, heroes, out there to learn about and give this approach a try. You will be glad you did. I promise!

His guidance, leadership, and friendship are PRICELESS

He has mentored me to achieve amazing professional goals without losing sight of the most important part of my life as a wife and mother. His guidance, leadership, and friendship are PRICELESS!!

Brian is a Full Service Mentor

Over the years, Brian has not only mentored the sales team, but also our Department Managers throughout the corporation developing personal goals, department goals, leadership skills, and execution.

A Great Motivator

He has been a great motivator for me, my team, and our organization’s management team. Outside of the impressive sales increase, there is an abundance of projects and initiatives that Brian has successfully led I would like to highlight some of them that ultimately changed my life both professionally and personally.

Learned How to Grow Territory

During the time I work with Brian, he challenged me, showed me how to sell and how to win in almost any circumstance. Brian helped me grow my sales territory (Chicago) from nothing to a $1,000,000+ book of business.

The Summit Solutions is not a one-fits-all process

Is the Summit Solutions a one-fits-all process that will lead to selling more? No, there are plenty of national programs with regional support that will sell you on that. I will tell you from my experience, they are outdated, not personalized, and don’t work. They typically also only focus on the sales department. Brian’s method is to work with the whole organization, while stressing the importance of creating a company culture that people want to be a part of.

As the VP Sales Manager, I was initially skeptical

As the VP Sales Manager, I was initially skeptical and guarded as to why we had to bring in an outside sales expert. I perceived this as an insult to my abilities and the performance of our team. Today I can honestly say that the association, teachings, and concepts Brian presented were the BEST thing to happen to our Company, myself, and our team.

When we started with Summit Learning Solutions we had 62 employees

When we started with Summit Learning Solutions we had 62 employees mostly serving the state of Michigan. Now, we have nearly 200 employees serving 17 states; and we’re still growing consistently. Moreover, when we started with Summit we sold about 3-5 Million a year in new business; now we sell 13 Million a year in new business.

They sourced and hired our first-ever sales team

They sourced and hired our first-ever sales team and created the sales and marketing plan to start the process. They designed our sales team’s compensation plans, trained them on appropriate sales methodology, and lead our overall strategy. Candidly, we thought they were way too optimistic in their sales projections. It turns out they undersold the possibilities. The program was very successful, very fast.

We are a better, healthier, and the more performance-driven company

We are a better, healthier, and the more performance-driven company now thanks to Brian’s training and support. Most importantly, it’s more profitable.