I recently had the opportunity to re-read a leadership book that I’ve had for a long time [The Leadership Challenge, by James M Kounzes and Barry C Posner, Fourth Edition, 2007, John Wiley and Sons] and a book on leadership that is new to me [Collaborative Leadership, by David D Chrislip and Carl E Larson, 1994, Jossey-Bass Publishers]. Both books identify similar characteristics of successful leaders and successful processes in community-based organizations. For example, Kounzes and Posner find that honesty, forward-looking thinking, ability to inspire others, and competency are the most highly rated characteristics of admired leaders, with credibility and transparency of the leader and the decision-making process as an essential and shared value. Chrislip and Larson identify as keys to successful collaboration a clear need, strong stakeholder groups, broad-based involvement, credibility and openness of the process, commitment from leaders, and effective leadership of the process. They go on to point out that directive and facilitative leadership styles usually lead to failure among grassroots and community collaborations. Rather, successful leaders inspire action and commitment from others, lead as a peer problem solver, build broad-based involvement, sustain hope and participation, and view collaborative leadership as a process rather than as a preconceived plan. Chrislip states: ”The results of effective collaborative leadership is [a process] in which the needs of both leaders and followers are met, stakeholders work together as peers, . . . and when collaboration is successful, participants are empowered and a new sense of efficacy and community emerges . . .”
Both leadership books provide detailed examples and extensive discussions of each aspect of effective and collaborative leadership. A major plus of Chrislip and Larson book is a checklist that can be used to assess the effectiveness of collaborations in organizations. While the checklist is designed for multi-group collaborations, it could easily be adapted to assess collaborative efforts by individuals who have come together to achieve a common purpose.
I strongly recommend these two books and other materials recommended by the American Leadership Forum [http://www.alforegon.org/]. I wish I had these books available when I was working with a group of other families to create a cohousing community and then run the community effectively using an established process that involved consensus decision-making. The collaborative effort was successful only when everyone was willing to honor the open and transparent group process that had been established. When individuals began to believe that they have a better way of doing things and went outside the established process to lobby for influence or impose their ideas on others, collaboration broke down and community life suffered. The lessons on leadership styles from Kounzes and Posner, and from Chrislip and Larson, offer collaborative leadership and shared and transparent process as ways to maintain engagement of talented people in a community effort that achieves its goals and objectives.
Aging in Community 