Democracy is not defined by the actions of elected officials but by the actions of citizens. The same is true in the workplace. Use the special powers of office infrequently and then only when collective efforts have been exhausted. Learn to listen, ask questions, express doubt and uncertainty. Forge partnerships with others at the same organizational level.
Lateral relationships are the most difficult to manage in the patriarchal world of bureaucracies.
Learn to cooperate with, yield to, support, and affirm the actions of peers both within and outside your department. Accept accountability for the well-being of the whole organization by willingness to give up power, territory, or even budget when it is best for all. Such actions are not common place on the part of employees or designated leaders in most of the institutions in which most of us have spent our working lives. It is my belief that they will need to become much more common if we in higher education are to be poised for success in the information and service based age of the early 2000's.