In 1861, Abraham Lincoln formed his Cabinet with his defeated opponents in the election of 1860. His “Team of Rivals” saved the Union, won the Civil War and passed the 13th Amendment ending slavery. He was able to accomplish this massive feat because he possessed one of the most important traits of strong leaders: the ability to foster collaboration.
This is a timeless trait that the leaders of today’s most innovative and disruptive companies are harnessing to fuel continual growth.
In addition to changing the way humans communicate on a daily basis, Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google changed the way of the modern office. Cubicles were replaced with open areas and couches were swapped for ping pong tables. Among other things, this layout helped foster employee collaboration which led to game-changing innovations like Google Earth, driverless cars and Facebook Live.
Other industries, taking notice of their success, started using open office models, too. Senior leaders hoped that the new set-up would lead to the type of collaboration, creativity and communication needed to gain more market share in their own industry.
The problem is that these very same business leaders, through their own actions, sometimes unintentionally kill the very collaboration they hope to instill.
As the CEO of a company that helps world-class companies build high performance sales teams, I’ve learned how various cultures and leadership styles can negatively impact collaboration.
Here are five ways business leaders unintentionally kill collaboration and creativity:
1. By not collaborating at the top.
Creating a collaborative environment starts at the very top. If the senior leader does not act collaboratively, that will filter down to the rest of the company, regardless of what is said nicely during quarterly kick-offs. Just look at what happened to Microsoft. It developed a tablet more than a decade ago that would have preempted the iPad but political infighting led to its demise.
A prime example of how to avoid this type of self-sabotage was on display several years ago when Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff made a bold change to their annual executive…