How do leaders help people keep moving along the collaboration continuum? - part #2

Another key to moving people along the collaboration continuum is for people to have confidence in themselves, their team and ultimately their company.

According to an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter called “How Leaders Gain (and Lose) Confidence” in the winter 2005 issue of Leader to Leader magazine, there are three corner stones to confidence, namely accountability, collaboration, and initiative. 

Kanter defines accountability as follows: “I mean taking personal responsibility: seeing where one's responsibility lies, facing it squarely, facing facts honestly, being able to admit mistakes quickly and do something about them.” 

She defines collaboration in this manner: “Confidence builds when you feel you can count on the people around you and when they feel they count on you. It is as simple as that.” 

And finally she explains Initiative as follows: “Unless there is permission and encouragement for people to take initiative and feel that their actions can make a difference there is no confidence in the system, in each other, in leaders.” 

As she continues, “So in sum, people need to be supported on a foundation of accountability, which means, full and open disclosure of honest information. They need to be supported on a foundation of collaboration, which means people around them whose skills they respect and who they know will operate in the best interest of the whole team, not just for their own selfish purposes. And people need to be supported by initiative, which means the encouragement, the permission, the resources, and the tools they need to take steps that make a difference. When these cornerstones are in place people have full confidence.”

For us here today, we need to remember that with every change comes an ending. As the late William Bridges pointed out, “Every new beginning starts with an ending.” As a result, during the endings and the new beginnings, people need and often lack control, understanding, support, and a clear sense of priorities.

My challenge to you this week is to continually build healthy teams, make sure we all understand the bigger picture, and make sure there is psychological safety to share. Collaboration is essential to success at this time period.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257