27. What is Collaborative Leadership?

"Leadership, expertise, and collaboration are fundamental aspects of efficient and effective health care." (WHO, 2005)

When collaborating with an interprofessional group of health care providers, each person is responsible to the client, the group, and their own profession. Shared leadership is an essential skill that must be developed in order to share decision making when collaborating. Providers share accountability for the group’s goals, yet remain individually accountable to their profession. It may seem that the concepts of collaboration and leadership are at odds with each other because often leadership is misinterpreted as "management."

"Leadership is defined as a relationship through which one person influences the behavior or actions of other people in the accomplishment of a common task." (Mullins 2009)

There are two components of leadership: task-orientation and relationship-orientation (1). In task-orientation, the leader helps other members stay focused on the common  goal. In relationship-orientation the leader helps members work more effectively together. In a shared leadership model, clients may choose to serve as the leader or leadership may move among practitioners to provide opportunities for students and new team members to be mentored in the leadership role. In some cases, there may be two leaders: one for practitioners to keep the work flowing and one whose primary role is to serve as the link between the team and the client/family.

To support collaborative practice, practitioners work together to decide who will provide group leadership in a situation by (1):

  • working with others to enable effective client outcomes

  • advancing interdependent working relationships among all participants

  • facilitating effective team processes

  • facilitating effective decision making

  • establishing a climate for collaborative practice among all participants

  • co-creating a climate for shared leadership and collaborative practice

  • applying collaborative decision-making principles

  • integrating the principles of continuous quality improvement to work processes and outcomes