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To be a leader in the government, one of the core qualifications and performance criteria is “Building Coalitions.” This is defined as an ability to build coalitions internally and with other agencies, government entities, nonprofit and private sector organizations, or international organizations to achieve common goals.
The competencies associated with Building Coalitions include:
- Partnering: Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals.
- Political Savvy: Identifies the internal and external politics that impact the work of the organization. Perceives organizational and political reality and acts accordingly.
- Influencing/Negotiating: Persuades others; builds consensus through give and take; gains cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals.
It is unfortunate that our Congressional representatives aren’t held to these same criteria. Unfortunately, in our age of increased partisanship on both sides of the political spectrum, “to build consensus through give and take” is seen as a weakness and giving in to the “wrong” perspective.
“Out of This World” leadership goes beyond Building Coalitions. In the 2012 book Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World (a unique collaboration between the Institute For the Future and the Center for Creative Leadership, author Robert Johansen describes “commons creating” as “the most advanced and the most important of the 10 future leadership skills”. It is the ability to make common cause with others for greater benefit.
Through the course of my career, I have witnessed situations where leaders who find the “common cause for greater benefit” ultimately achieve more than those who are stuck in the mode of trying to do everything themselves. Specifically, the International Space Station is the result of “commons creating” between the United States, Russia, and several other partners, who all worked for the greater good to start building the space station in 1998 and put the first crew members on board in 2000. This “commons creating” leadership focus continues today, as crew members operate the ISS as a national laboratory.
So what’s the difference in “commons creating” leaders and those who seem to be partisan—demonstrating biased, unthinking allegiance? It largely goes back to Steven Covey’s Habit 5 (from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989): Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. As Covey notes, we should use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by another, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by us. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving.
So, seek first to understand someone else today and initiate “commons creating”…and you’re on your way to Out of This World Leadership…