• Superintendent Expectations
  • 1. Child Centered
  • 2. Respectful
  • 3. Visible
  • 4. Organized
  • 5. Enthusiastic
  • 6. Communicator
  • 7. Collaborative
  • 8. Positive Role Model
  • 9. Forgiving
  • 10. Professional
  • 11. Proactive
  • 12. Positive
  • Collaborative Icon EXPECTATION #7:
    BE COLLABORATIVE

    Leadership requires diplomacy, willingness to relinquish control, and moving towards a collaborative way of doing things. In Center Grove, individuals at all levels are encouraged to take initiative and act in a manner that contributes to achieving the overall vision of the district. This is what being a Collaborative Leader is all about. The following are some key distinguishing attributes of collaborative leadership in action:

    1. Don’t be a control freak - A collaborative leader understands the real truth is that nobody is ever in complete control of external circumstances. People may follow your instructions because they fear punishment, but you can get them to genuinely commit to a cause only by truly motivating and inspiring them. A collaborative leader seeks not to control, but to inspire others and work together as a team.

    2. Transferable skills - For successful collaborative leadership, the leader must have a set of skills that are considered to be of value across multiple functions and sectors. Stakeholder management, strategic planning, quantitative analysis, and the ability to motivate are some of the skills that leaders would possess.

    3. Collaborative Challenge - Collaborative leadership is all about breaking down walls and silos, and building close cross-functional relationships based on trust and communication. The leader does not restrict their focus only on direct reports, but instead embraces the team. It takes strong relationship skills and a great deal of influence to be able to lead a horizontal team. This is the true hallmark of a collaborative leader.

    4. Risk-taking is encouraged - Working under a collaborative leader is great for personal and professional growth because they are forever encouraging employees to take risks. They create an atmosphere of trust and security, which makes employees open to taking risks. Without risks, there will be no creativity, innovation, or growth.

    5. Contextual intelligence - Since this style of leadership involves people from different functional areas across the organization, the leader is likely to possess contextual intelligence, or the ability to have empathy for differences inside and between sectors, especially relating to culture, language, and performance indicators.

    6. Transparency- Unless the information is shared openly across the organization, it is not possible to create an atmosphere of trust and collaboration. A collaborative leader ensures a steady stream of business and market intelligence to pass through multiple teams to facilitate better decision-making, and to improve agility.

    7. Constructive conflict - When people are encouraged to openly voice their opinions and to take risks, it is only natural that conflicts emerge. A collaborative leader understands that such constructive conflict is necessary for the growth of the organization and for fine-tuning rough ideas.

    8. Intellectual thread - This leader is able to understand a particular issue from the point of view of different sectors. Inter-sector problems are best handled by a collaborative leader because he has the ability and well-rounded subject matter expertise to understand multiple perspectives of the same issue.

    9. Strong network - Collaborative leaders do not burn bridges. In fact, they are heavily invested in cultivating strong relationships everywhere. They are likely to draw on this strong integrated network to advance their career, or to build great teams for the organization.

    Credits:

    • Yscouts
    • Hrzone
    • Office of Ed Tech - Palisades School District discusses collaborative leadership as a means of building capacity in leadership, teaching staff and the school community.
    • Michael Leonard - http://www.MonfortInstitute.org - NONE of us are as smart as ALL of us!
    • Matthew Koschmann - a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder.  The purpose is to explore the topic of collaboration and explain a constitutive communication approach to enhance our understanding of collaboration.