ABSTRACT
Why do so many leaders go wrong? The simple answer is that they just don’t understand the nature and complexity of collaborative working. While they might have a great track record in leading a single functional area, department or organisation, the distinctly different challenges of running a highly collaborative venture leave them all at sea. Habits developed over years of success in a situation where they could exercise positional control become major barriers to working effectively in a partnership. Like the warnings about choosing high-profi le fund managers to manage your nest egg, past performance is no indicator of future performance – or not unless recruitment boards start looking for proven collaborative skills instead of prowess in a single-lane role.
