Like many agency leaders, I needed to own the most important decisions and work. I was lucky to have a collaborative leader and colleagues who helped me learn how diverse perspectives create more powerful work. Hearing things that challenged my thinking and my authority turned out to be the gateway to growth.
You could say they developed my collaboration IQ. While it happens in teams, it starts at the top with a mindset, structure, and practices aimed at everyone winning together. Without the willingness, you’ll try to make collaboration work and then break the model.
High collaboration IQ looks like this:
Leaders not wizards
Anyone who starts an agency excels at a critical element of advertising. They succeed when they know who they are and who they are not. They expand when they understand and appreciate others’ goals and let their talent experiment. Flexibility starts with being comfortable not having the full picture. When they surround themselves with complementary peers, both within and beyond the agency, and let the people who master the other things run those areas, the real magic happens. Their role gets profoundly easier because they share the burden of success – something most must learn from experience.
Wild curiosity
The best collaborators ask lots of questions and aren’t scared to change their minds based on the different opinions they gather. They want to keep improving, defining that as getting a better product. Craft takes precedence over commerce, and curiosity itself is a high craft. By contrast, there’s no collaboration if the “boss” is the only one entitled to ask the tough questions.
Valued people
When people’s opinions and visions are sought, respected, and rewarded, they create valuable collaboration. There’s a feeling that the work is never done; we can always make it better together. In this environment, people continually broaden their perspectives and learn new skills. Accountability expands and strengthens. Agency pride intensifies without HR stunts.
Exponential power
Small becomes mighty when together, defining the everyday spirit. You stop trying to piece together individual efforts and start creating a multidisciplinary team with trusted partners who share your mindset and objectives. That’s when real power happens.
I had to learn to put my agenda aside and envision how everyone involved—my client, people and agency partners—could win in any situation. Then, I could set my intention for working and how I could best show up. As a result, I started asking “why” compulsively. Ideas started gaining momentum faster because everyone involved felt invited to contribute.
As more clients put value on the agility of independent agencies yet look for fewer suppliers, small shops’ ability to grow increases in direct proportion to their ability to collaborate. The best partnerships already master internal collaboration and extend this to working with complementary firms.
Increasingly, enlightened clients are recognizing the power of agency collaborations. They’re asking for multidisciplinary team approaches, which raise the stakes for internal and external collaboration. Agencies need to play bigger without getting bigger.
Lindsay Rutherford is the president of IKPN, and based in Edmonton.
