Lesson 3.7 | The Accountable Collaborator™
TRANSCRIPT
The fifth superpower is being an Accountable Collaborator. This has been a challenge for many organizations. First, because people are often told to stay in their lane, they work in silos. The second challenge is there's often a drive for a single point of accountability, even when a team is required to do the work. The fact is you need both accountability and collaboration.
Given our complexity and turbulence, individuals can do little alone. Cross-functional and even cross-organizational collaboration is essential to address and best solve the multifaceted challenges we face and to take advantage of the opportunities that emerge. At the same time, teams can and should be held accountable for delivering agreed-upon stakeholder outcomes. Both are necessary. Neither accountability nor collaboration alone is sufficient.
What are the key behaviors and traits of Accountable Collaborators?
1. They acknowledge that given the complexity and turbulence we are in and will face, individuals working alone cannot solve most of the challenges we face. Cross-functional and even cross-organization collaboration is essential to solving these challenges and, equally important, taking advantage of opportunities that emerge.
2. They hold teams accountable for making progress towards delivering and achieving critical outcomes. They are not micro-managing activities. These outcomes should be owned and bought into by the team called upon to deliver them. They do not micro-manage the team. Instead, they expect the team to manage itself so that outcomes are delivered. They support each other for the team's success to ensure that outcomes are delivered.
3. They foster and support collaboration through their words and actions. They work to remove obstacles and work with other leaders to ensure adequate resourcing to enable progress and ultimate success.
4. They support the formation of fit-for-purpose, fit-for-the-future teams comprised of people with the requisite skills and capabilities to enable success without regard to level or function. They allow these teams to operate outside of the organizational structure. The team is put together to achieve that outcome, not to report to this department or that function. That's why it has to be outside of the organizational structure.
When these four conditions are in place, team members are comfortable engaging, taking ownership, and being held accountable for outcomes.
There you have it. The Five Leadership Superpowers® – Present Futurist, Experienced Learner, Prepared Risk Taker, Strategic Executor, and Accountable Collaborator. In the next lesson, we will discuss the power of five and mastery of the Superpowers.