Sharpening Your skills as a Collaborative Leader My background New role Request from board of directors Jack Miner The Ohio State University

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Individual Leadership vs. Collaborative Leadership Collaborative Learning examples Not just Teamwork because team loses individual identity Partnerships Public – Private partnerships Reints Preibes example

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner “I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today it means getting along with people” Mahatma Ghandi

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Strengthfinder Myers – Briggs Personality Assessment Keirsey Temperment Sorter Building on what you know about yourself and others Next level of leadership

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner What is Collaborative Leadership? Common Purpose Shared Objectives Various Perspectives Value Individual Goals and Motivations Getting results across organizational boundaries Getting value from the differences within organizations (culture, experience, background, skills, motivation)

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Gaining Information from various sources Across disciplines Across offices Across areas within an office From other universities Example in my office – Jed’s area Effectiveness and Efficiency example

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Requirements for a collaborative leader Build relationships Handle conflict Share Control

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Build Relationships Build relationships before they are needed Most successful are interested in other people, what motivates them Invest time in building wide and diverse networks Not simply building a better team Not just having more fun working together

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Handle Conflict Dealing with conflict Conflicts are inevitable Interpersonal skills important Recognize early signs of conflict Confident in handling conflict Be an effective mediator Culture clash can derail a partnership

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Share Control Sharing Control Often with other leaders Different from empowering In other models, goal is to empower someone who can lead without you Making decisions together Apple example Each party should know what they stand to gain

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Sharing Power & Control Self Assessment & Group Discussion Aligning people or organizations with different interests, charges or focuses into a combined focus Building trust Working together to create something new

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner When to Collaborate When to collaborate Don’t need to collaborate on every project Example of research initiatives – model shifting on cancer research, Biden, Ohio State World Health Organization – response to SARS virus, 11 labs around the world to isolate the virus Business – does collaboration not align with competition Not for profit – may collaborate for a portion of mission or for common cause

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Amount of collaboration High Medium Low Permanent Partnership Customer Team Supplier Can’t manage partners like you would manage your team Can’t treat them as a transactional partnership – needs to be buy in on both sides and a bigger commitment Professional sports teams examples of high collaboration – come from individuals, each has role, work together, long term Too much sharing is as bad as too little Not teamwork In a team, the individuals are consistently uniting for a common purpose Often give up individual allegiances or identities May still have a single leader Collaborative suggests that an individuals strength comes from their background Collaboration assumes that the diversity of identities and backgrounds adds quality

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner How does each office want to collaborate? What is the goal? What is each area’s style? What are the likely areas of conflict? What are the measures of success? Measure of success – not just the result, not just the process for the sake of process, acknowledgment of a better end result Consider delayed benefits Build into performance management

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Is there a dominant leader? Is the relationship dictated by hierarchy or a customer relationship? How do you overcome these obstacles?

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Leadership creates the systems managers manage Key tasks of leadership: Creating vision and strategy Communicating and setting direction Motivating action Aligning people

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Creating a Vision Self Assessment & Group Discussion Aligning people or organizations with different interests, charges or focuses into a combined focus Building trust Working together to create something new

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Common Downfalls One team Group think Collaboration for collaboration sake Process and partnership takes over as goal or consumes time or energy Team implies giving up individualism Lose the background that made you valuable Group think – missing out on individual perspectives

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Checklists Are you managing all of your collaborations? Does everyone recognize existing loyalties? What is the individual baggage? What are the likely conflicts? Do team members know their role?

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Role Clarity and Task Ambiguity The individual knows their individual role or purpose It is the task that is more open Allows individual to set the direction Allows individuals to have more of a sense of ownership Leaves room or creativity and collaboration Set a vision but not necessarily a direction or a path

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Checklists Are the right people involved? Is everyone measuring success in the same way? Is everyone participating at an appropriate level?

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Building Trust Self Assessment & Group Discussion Aligning people or organizations with different interests, charges or focuses into a combined focus Building trust Working together to create something new

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Leading Collaborative Leaders How do decisions get made? Ensuring that if necessary a small group of decision makers are meeting often enough to make tie breaker decisions or validate direction Ensure that there are varying perspectives…avoiding group think and filtering by messengers Common language Know motivations

Sharpening Your Skills as a Collaborative Leader Jack Miner Shadow of a Leader Look for collaboration opportunities Don’t just ask staff to collaborate but do it yourself with your peers Find opportunities to join in collaboration efforts Look out for potential where you could hold more power Be careful what you ask for – example – “I don’t care until I care” If you cast yourself as an equal – follow through on it Standing by your partners – having their back – even on other issues Avoid blame Building trust by defending or advising when getting off track – again, on things that aren’t your collaboration project Help problem solve in times of need Keeping promises can build trust

Executive Director, Enrollment Services Questions Jack Miner University Registrar Executive Director, Enrollment Services Miner.10@osu.edu