HOW TO BUILD A COLLABORATIVE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT

When too many people in a company lack collaborative skills there is a very low trust, high blame, un-supportive workplace. People are less open, so it is more difficult to solve problems. They avoid risk taking because if anything goes wrong someone will get blamed.

When IBM was picking their next generation of leaders, all the people they picked had a skill that IBM called "collaborative influence." It's the ability to get people to do things when you don't control their salary; i.e., they do so simply because you have a good relationship. When Bell Labs looked closely at the difference between their good employees and the real stars, they found that the stars were adept at building collaborative networks. They knew who they could call when they had a problem. Other people were willing to help out because of the relationships that had been built.

HOW TO CREATE A BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Although successful managers must have the attributes of a great leader, by themselves these attributes are not enough. Many great leaders still do not build successful organizations.

Non-profits that deliver great results over time are best positioned to survive, grow, and have an impact. Non profits that perform poorly, on the other hand, end up irrelevant or even as failures. And non profits that perform merely satisfactorily are vulnerable to shifts in the funding climate or the political environment.