An African proverb reminds us, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’
You know that building a strong leadership team is what moves your business forward. A strong leadership team is no less important in the civic realm, but assembling such a team can be far more challenging. In your business, you know the type of leader you want to recruit and the culture that you want to create.
You are in control. In the civic realm, there is no one clearly in control, no defining description of a leader and no singular culture.
So what moves the civic agenda forward and creates lasting change? The answer is collaborative civic leadership. It is the most effective leadership, yet it is the most elusive. Effective because it creates sustainable and transformational change.
Elusive because it requires leaders to create a shared vision and surrender their egos. A single leader may successfully advance an initiative, but it is more powerful and sustainable if key collaborators are invited to contribute to the effort.
Build partnerships
The first step is to find others who share your passion. When committed, successful people join forces with other committed, successful people sharing a civic passion, great things happen.
Innovators launch transformative community initiatives. Nonprofit boards are strengthened and become more effective in driving the organization’s mission. Northeast Ohio becomes an even better place to live and work.
For positive change to happen, we must be willing to set aside individual and organizational agendas and unite behind a shared vision, a shared goal. We must be willing to step out of a traditional leadership role to listen to others, to be inclusive, to adopt a different style, and yes, at times, to follow someone else’s lead.
Working with other leaders to identify a path to the goal is hard. It requires a level of discipline, patience and adaptive leadership that taps our limited time and energy.
Get inspired
It is tempting to say that meaningful collaborative civic engagement is for those who have more time and energy.
It is often the busiest people, however, who tell me that the time-intensive project that demanded true collaboration was the investment that yielded the most significant dividends for their personal, professional and civic life. The sense of accomplishment was profound and learning to work with other leaders made them more inspired and effective in their own roles.
When I think about the business leaders who are the most respected, they are recognized as much for their collaborative civic successes as for their business successes. As one of our top community leaders says, collaboration yields great ROI: Return On Involvement.
We know that effective civic collaboration — large and small — strengthens communities. We know that stronger communities are good for business. So why not make collaboration a key ingredient of your leadership? If we want to take Cleveland far, let’s go together. ●
Marianne Crosley is president and CEO at Cleveland Leadership Center
