Collaboration and Leadership Reflection

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Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Transcript
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Collaboration and Leadership Reflection
1. Introduction
We all see numerous examples of how things are being shaped by collaborative innovation, like Wikipedia being one of those that we all know and being one of the top 10 popular websites. But even though that success, have you ever thought about what makes that happen? There might be a couple of key things we need to think about – from a leadership perspective, to allow people to have shared decision making and think about looking at different or innovative types of approaches, trying to foster autonomy: such as teams having their ownership and being more self-directed, which in turn is the fruit of utilizing some newer ways or models of management because then it puts those shared governance work and where the expertise is to the best use. And certainly one of the other key things I can think of is to have a shared vision, let everyone understand where they want to go. When people work together like this, it will result in more idea sharing and solution seeking, which in regard to the collective wisdom. There is a multitude of literature that all drives home the idea that the heart of understanding collaboration is what makes effective teams work. Yet MIT Professor Peter Senge put it best when he said, “Great things cannot be accomplished by one person alone.” If we don’t have collaboration and interdependency, what we really have are people who use political power in organizations just to get their pieces done and get away from everybody else. Great things cannot be accomplished by one person alone. But what does he mean by the term “great things”? In general, I think “great things” refer to ideas that when put into action will have an impact on the world around us. For leaders, this might be a vision of a large change that can impact the industry, or it might be a series of small changes that will impact the individual workers; and for teams, “great things” can range from small process improvements to large-scale projects that will improve overall work life; and for researchers, “great things” can either mean a large-scale research project. He also made one interesting point about “dependency”. When people think about dependency, what comes to mind is being reliant on other people and therefore losing your own flexibilities.
As organizations become larger and more complex, the importance of people working effectively together increases. The world also becomes more competitive. It’s also said that the number one competitive advantage for an organization is to have a more engaged and talented professional workforce, and when you can link that with collaborative behavior, the research suggests that there is better morale and greater productivity in the workforce. When we are talking about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, it’s no longer just solely compliance driven; it does matter and it’s an important part and a foundation of how you establish and underpin your current and future workplace for growing and continuous improvement.
1.1 Importance of Collaboration and Leadership
Collaboration and leadership are inseparable. According to Arcidiacono (2004), a variety of scholars agree that “collaboration is a kind of trust, and leadership is a demonstration of worthy of that trust” (p. 1). Effective leaders should be working in partnership with employees, peers, superiors and other stakeholders, and the leadership and employees should be in a collaborative effort in decision making and improvement. In other words, leadership and collaboration are not the same concept but they are used inter-relatedly in the organization. As we can see in the daily operation of an organization, no matter in a health care setting or in a student union, leaders are always trying to engage staffs and service users in order to make improvements which can only be achieved by a collaborative work. Wilhelm, L, Donahue L (2012) also states that “leaders foster collaboration by creating a safe and inviting climate” (p. 2). This shows that it is the leaders’ duty to promote collaboration by setting up a positive environment in which the employees will more likely to engage in the work and communicate with others. On the other hand, without an effective leadership, theories that related to collaboration such as open system theory, teamwork and innovation will not function well. It is because leaders serve a critical role by influencing, guiding and directing the group to maintain the effectiveness and facilitate the accomplishment of team goals. Therefore, as suggested by Pearce and his colleagues (2004), leaders and researchers would recognize that new ways of thinking about leadership will need to be taken seriously and there is a need to shift the attention away from the “great-man” and “top-down” conceptions to a new paradigm of shared leadership (p. 424). This is also supporting the idea that leadership and collaboration should be integrated as “shared leadership”, in which the team members can most share the responsibility. To sum up, while leadership is about “creating change and moving in new directions” (Pearce and his colleagues, 2004, p. 413), a collaborative work can provide a wide range of fresh ideas and alternative solutions to reach the goal. Thus, from this reflection, I have learnt that collaboration and leadership not only can influence each other in a positive way, they are also creating a democratic working environment and building up participative democracy.
1.2 Purpose of the Reflection
Next, I will closely study the literature and undertake the critical analysis. Through the main academic resources, I will explore the concepts of leadership and collaboration and reflect on how these will impact on clinical outcomes, following the principles of clinical governance. Also, with the critical analysis of the literature to explore and differentiate leadership and management, I aim to understand more about the core functions of the leaders in contemporary organizational context. Based on the analysis, I will also compare different leadership theories and leadership traits. Relevant leadership models such as power and influence leadership will be examined to understand the various models of leadership and the impact on clinical outcomes. Last but not least, the impact on patient care will be evaluated, following a comprehensive consideration of how effective leadership and collaboration impact patient care outcomes. Reflexibility, as an important dimension of critical reflection, is added to my learning process throughout the whole module. It is a process of focusing on experiences and exploring them in a thoughtful manner to gain new understanding. Students and teachers for many years have been stuck in the traditional model of valid knowledge and learning, where they have not paid much attention to their own experience (Bolton, 2014). Therefore, the reflexivity in learning will be explained and discussed about how modern leadership skills are acquired through reflexivity and critical analysis of the personal learning process. Well, I find that reading and note-making are the main ways that I used to muddle through and learn previously. However, the experiential learning model advocates for greater awareness, reflection, reasoning, and sharing (Harris, 2011). Through reflexivity, my learning in terms of leadership and the learning and teaching process are critiqued, and some assumptions are found to be based on inaccurate, incomplete, or unreasonable grounds.
2. Understanding Collaboration
2.1 Definition of Collaboration
2.2 Benefits of Collaboration
2.3 Challenges in Collaboration
3. Developing Leadership Skills
3.1 Definition of Leadership
3.2 Qualities of Effective Leaders
3.3 Leadership Styles
3.4 Leadership Development Strategies
4. The Role of Collaboration in Leadership
4.1 Collaboration as a Leadership Skill
4.2 How Collaboration Enhances Leadership Effectiveness
4.3 Examples of Successful Collaborative Leadership
5. Reflection on Personal Collaboration and Leadership Experiences
5.1 Challenges Faced in Collaborative Projects
5.2 Lessons Learned from Leadership Roles
5.3 Personal Growth and Development in Collaboration and Leadership
6. Strategies for Improving Collaboration and Leadership Skills
6.1 Communication Strategies for Effective Collaboration
6.2 Conflict Resolution Techniques in Collaborative Environments
6.3 Building Trust and Establishing Relationships in Leadership
6.4 Continuous Learning and Development in Collaboration and Leadership
7. Conclusion
7.1 Summary of Key Reflections
7.2 Importance of Continuous Improvement in Collaboration and Leadership