Collaboration is a developed skill and requires self-discipline and concentration. It requires a deep re-organization of our beliefs about what it means to work together. It is the clear ability to yield position, to be open to new ideas and approaches, to allow possibilities to emerge from the group. It is the ability to resist control and live with ambiguity and initial failure. Correctly used in negotiation, it can be the difference between a strong agreement and a stalemate.
Collaboration is a finely tuned dance, where everyone involved is committed to a positive result.
Leaders understand how to be part of a partnership without yielding integrity, moving about a position to create a new way. True collaboration opens us up to 360 degrees of possibility. Virtual leaders rely on collaboration to make connections between people in cyberspace, where members of teams cannot rely on physical proximity to create relationships. Many fallacies about collaboration exist. One is that if we embrace collaboration as a style, then we must discard everything else.