It’s International Leadership Week! The Institute of Leadership’s annual celebration of organisational management and leadership serves as a great opportunity to explore the impact that effective leadership can have and highlight the importance of developing it via improved knowledge, relevant skills and increased confidence.
This year’s theme, #CollaborateForSuccess, explains that modern leadership isn’t just about directing from the top, it’s about empowering individuals and teams to thrive, collectively. The IoL has identified eleven areas that are highly relevant to collaborative leadership, of which we have expanded on five below.
Leading Teams: Guiding Towards Success
Leadership isn’t simply about authority; it’s about guidance and inspiration. Leadership development hones the wide variety of skills needed to lead a team effectively, which means helping all its members to perform to the best of their abilities – setting them goals and motivating them to exceed expectations.
Within a high-performance team, strong leadership fosters a culture of accountability, empowerment, and continuous improvement.
Dealing with Conflict:
Turning Challenges into Opportunities
The word conflict might conjure some dramatic images, but it’s inevitable in any organisation and doesn’t necessarily mean shouting matches. Skilled leaders realise that conflict highlights diversity of thought which, in turn, leads to creativity, problem solving and operational improvements when harnessed effectively.
From a leadership perspective, conflict resolution skills don’t involve getting rid of conflict entirely or ‘drawing a line under it’ and moving on every time, they mean an ability to drill down to the cause(s) of any particular conflict and using that information to inspire discussion, lateral thinking and – if appropriate – different ways of working and behaving. Organisations and teams with a positive approach to conflict are more resilient and better at navigating change.
Appreciating Diversity: Strength in Difference
Diversity is much more than a buzzword; it’s a cornerstone of innovation. A good leadership development programme will instil an increased understanding of – and appreciation for – diversity, highlighting the value of fostering inclusive environments where every voice is valued and new ideas are explored, wherever they’ve come from. By embracing diverse perspectives and making sure no-one is being consciously or unconsciously excluded, leaders unlock creativity, engagement, and adaptability.
Engaging Stakeholders:
Building Lasting Partnerships
Stakeholders are partners in success as well as clients, investors and affiliates. Leadership development emphasises the importance of stakeholder engagement, teaching leaders to communicate effectively and align interests for mutual benefit. Collaborative leaders embrace the idea that teamwork goes beyond interactions with colleagues and, by going the extra mile to engage and inform stakeholders, they unlock that behaviour and attitude in everyone around them.
Managing Meetings: Maximising Productivity
Is there a better environment in which to #CollaborateForSuccess than the meeting? They are the most common environment for group interactions and so a perfect testing ground and ‘development bed’ for productive collaboration. Whether they are morning ‘stand-ups’, quarterly ‘all-hands’ or ‘brainstorms’ related to a specific operational challenge, all meetings can become unproductive wastes of valuable time if they are not managed effectively.
Collaborative leadership skills involve the ability facilitate successful and engaging meetings – setting agendas, securing commitments to action and making sure every voice in the room (or Zoom) is heard.
Leadership development is our core speciality. For over 20 years, we’ve been helping organisations worldwide to support their managers and leaders with engaging, interactive and impactful training that helps them to feel more confident, effective and empowered in their role.
Whether you are interested in management apprenticeships, leadership skills workshops or a targeted leadership development programme with or without ILM or CMI accreditation (all the way up to board level) – talk to us now and find out how we can help…
