Collaboration and Leadership
The first time I really heard the word of the “Collaboration” was in 1998 when I still worked at IBM. One of the Sr. VPs spoke to us about the difference between the 20th and 21st centuries. He referred to the 20th century as the century of super heroes, who either destroyed or saved the world, companies and communities. Due to the vast amount of information and accelerated rate of information addition and exchanging, it would be impossible for one person to digest the vast amount of information and provide penetrating messages beyond the noise of the ever growing information universe. Then the 21st century became the century of team collaboration, that groups of super heroes would work together, utilize their expertise and strength, process information that they could best understand, providing their expert strategy and methodology, flawlessly execute the team’s plan and reach the ultimate goal.
Since then, collaboration became popular as well as frequently abused, and it is rising fast to the top of the list of “not to use political vocabulary”. Some people used it as an excuse to avoid responsibility, and others used it to postpone making hard decisions. It was used as a place to hide behind fellow workers in case the project did not work out.
Note that I didn’t use Collaboration vs. Leadership as the title. In an effective organization, leadership and collaboration are best friends. They should appear hand in hand all the time. When new responsibility appears, usually it is tough and challenging, a real leader never use collaboration to shy away from these tough moments. Some call it the “MOT”, moment of the truth. A person is courageous enough to take on challenges and walk on churning political undercurrents, assuming responsibility, gathering the team’s input, making the tough decisions and leading the team forward.
Leading a team forward needs synergy. Synergy comes from inspiration and team collaboration. A rocket to the moon was inspired by the president, implemented by many highly skillful scientists, engineers and supporting teams, materials and parts around the world. Collaboration enables great endeavors and complex modern technology production. When three people are randomly drafted together, their goals and efforts are not aligned and skills are not complimentary to each other. Their efforts can actually be cancelled out, you would see “1+1+1 <3” or even “1+1+1<0”. When “1+1+1>3” happens, real collaboration is at work. When sparks of synergy turn into flaming fire, “1+1+1 >4.0 or more”!
A real leader makes tough calls and energizes teams around him/her via collaboration. Only ones who master the leadership as well as collaboration can accomplish many “impossible” missions with his/her teams.
Elizabeth Xu
Since then, collaboration became popular as well as frequently abused, and it is rising fast to the top of the list of “not to use political vocabulary”. Some people used it as an excuse to avoid responsibility, and others used it to postpone making hard decisions. It was used as a place to hide behind fellow workers in case the project did not work out.
Note that I didn’t use Collaboration vs. Leadership as the title. In an effective organization, leadership and collaboration are best friends. They should appear hand in hand all the time. When new responsibility appears, usually it is tough and challenging, a real leader never use collaboration to shy away from these tough moments. Some call it the “MOT”, moment of the truth. A person is courageous enough to take on challenges and walk on churning political undercurrents, assuming responsibility, gathering the team’s input, making the tough decisions and leading the team forward.
Leading a team forward needs synergy. Synergy comes from inspiration and team collaboration. A rocket to the moon was inspired by the president, implemented by many highly skillful scientists, engineers and supporting teams, materials and parts around the world. Collaboration enables great endeavors and complex modern technology production. When three people are randomly drafted together, their goals and efforts are not aligned and skills are not complimentary to each other. Their efforts can actually be cancelled out, you would see “1+1+1 <3” or even “1+1+1<0”. When “1+1+1>3” happens, real collaboration is at work. When sparks of synergy turn into flaming fire, “1+1+1 >4.0 or more”!
A real leader makes tough calls and energizes teams around him/her via collaboration. Only ones who master the leadership as well as collaboration can accomplish many “impossible” missions with his/her teams.
Elizabeth Xu
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