GFA Leadership Competencies: Collaboration
Definition:
Every public sector role requires some type of collaboration — across a team, with managers, with constituents, with outside organizations, with other Fellows, and more. The ability to work effectively with others and build teams is key to being a public sector leader.
Collaboration in Action:
“Engaging with community members and people with lived experience is essential to creating effective policies that are responsive to the needs of the communities you serve.”
Isabel Jones worked with the New Orleans-based organization Daughters Beyond Incarceration (DBI) to develop a handbook to support caregivers of children with parents in prison. The handbook aims to empower and equip caregivers and parents to support children with parents in prison.
The process of developing the handbook took 10 months, during which time Isabel met with the staff, mentees, and caregivers of DBI to review the handbook and incorporate their feedback. The final product leverages the expertise and experience of community members and acknowledges the contributions of many individuals and organizations outside of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
5 ways to collaborate in government
Listen actively in meetings, invite in other voices, and offer help or specific resources in response to people’s requests or comments either in the meeting or after the meeting.
Be aware of what is happening in the world outside of your office. Are there important trends or information that your team might benefit from knowing? What is happening in your policy silo in other states?
Put your team first by asking if others need support and even offering proactive support that you think they might need, and acknowledge the contributions of your teammates whenever you can.
When leading an effort, think of yourself as the person responsible for ensuring the quality of the project, activity, or event, not as the sole decision-maker. This includes sharing information with other decision-makers or individuals who possess the authority or resources to help achieve your goals.
Identify supporters and learn to play to each person’s strengths when leading a project or proposing a new initiative. Prioritize bringing people together with complementary skills and gathering diverse perspectives and experiences by looking for who is not in the room.
Who in your community demonstrates the collaboration competency through their actions? How have you seen collaboration show up in your work? Get in touch at hello@govforamerica.org and let us know!
About the GFA Public Sector Leadership Competencies: At Govern For America, we believe that people are policy. We believe that when the people who work in government are proximate to the communities most impacted by their decisions and approach problems with a core set of skills we can achieve better, more equitable policy outcomes. GFA defines these skills as a series of nine core competencies that effective public sector leaders demonstrate at every stage of their career. We look for these competencies as part of our Fellowship selection process and support Fellows to develop them over the course of their Fellowship.