Collaborative Leadership In (Higher Education) Development covers target groups such as private colleges, public universities and other non-profit organizations. The issues reviewed will be internal-external communications, campaign direction (The President of the school or the Consultant), Relationship Responsibility (Individual or Institution) and collaborative leadership trends.
Collaborative Leadership is an emerging body of theory and management practice which is focused on the leadership skills and attributes need to deliver results across organizational boundaries. In her 1994 Harvard Business Review article “Collaborative Advantage”, Rosabeth Moss Kanter talks about leaders who recognize that there are critical business relationships “that cannot be controlled by formal systems but require (a) dense web of interpersonal connections…”. And in a book published in that same year Chrislip and Larson looked at the attributes of great civic leaders in communities across the United States and found some similar attributes. “Collaboration needs a different kind of leadership; it needs leaders who can safeguard the process, facilitate interaction and patiently deal with high levels of frustration”.

Hank Rubin author and President of the Institute of Collaborative Leadership has written “A collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome.” In his book “Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships for Communities and Schools” Rubin asks “Who is a collaborative leader?” and answers “You are a collaborative leader once you have accepted responsibility for building – or helping to ensure the success of – a heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared purpose . Your tools are (1) the purposeful exercise of your behavior, communication, and organizational resources in order to affect the perspective, beliefs, and behaviors of another person (generally a collaborative partner) to influence that person’s relationship with you and your collaborative enterprise and (2) the structure and climate of an environment that supports the collaborative relationship.”

David Archer and Alex Cameron in their book Collaborative Leadership: How to succeed in an interconnected world, identify the basic task of the collaborative leader as the delivery of results across boundaries between different organizations. They say “Getting value from difference is at the heart of the collaborative leader’s task… they have to learn to share control, and to trust a partner to deliver, even though that partner may operate very differently from themselves.”

The focus of this presentation will be a backdrop of higher education and how we succeed in a global marketplace. The amount of successful relationships that one has to have to professionally develop has grown from previous years. These relationships, internally and externally gives colleagues a measure of your capacity. Do you work in a vacuum or are you connected? That is the question. How can you bring value and solutions to a conversation, committee or organization?This presentation answers these questions.

The presentation looks at “direction” from a capital campaign perspective, a case statement, a brand and vision goal and personnel involved in this process. Who is the person with the best idea to be followed: the president or the consultant? One vantage point is internally focused and is based on experience, authority and a captive audience. The other vantage point is externally based and is focused on trends, analytics and a selective audience. What value and perspective do you bring to this process? This presentation answers that question and explains the worth of feedback.

Relationship responsibility is critical in collaborative leadership development. Are key relationships being managed by the institution or individuals? In a collaborative environment, the relationship is shared to produce better results. From computer applications to organizational development, the tension between “open architecture” and “structured environment” determines how relationship responsibility is handled.

Lastly, we will review collaborative leadership trends. As Rod Newing writing in a Financial Times supplement special report says “If collaboration is to be effective, each party must recognize and respect the different culture of the other”. And traditional development paths don’t prepare leaders well for this “traditional management development is based on giving potential managers a team of people and a set of resources to control – and success is rewarded with more people and more resources to control. By contrast, collaboration requires managers to achieve success through people and resources outside their control and for this they have had no preparation”.

Rodney O. Parks is the Director of Development at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. He leads in area of major gifts, planned giving, annual giving and governmental relations. He gives guidance in advancement services, marketing and alumni cultivation. His leadership has led the school to its most major and planned gifts in its history and led to securing $1 million in two years in governmental appropriations. His guidance has yielded an increased alumni participation rate of 4% in 2008 to 19% in 2011. PSC has received approximately $2 million in the past two years from various foundations who have embraced our mission and been successful in fulfilling a $300,000 challenge grant in seven months when we had three years to complete.
Mr. Parks had a successful 20 year banking career before joining PSC. His highly developed interpersonal skills have led to promotions in positions of leadership and management where he has been able to continuously deliver measurable and profitable results. As an active community member in the State of Arkansas, his leadership qualities have been noted by the following organizations:
• Vice Chairman – State Banking Board of Arkansas (2011)
• Leadership Arkansas Class I (2007)
• Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 (2007)
• Former Board of Trustees – Arkansas District Judges Retirement System (2005)
• Former President – Arkansas Tech University Alumni Association (2003)

Since joining Philander Smith College in 2008, his leadership has also been noted within the Council For Advancement And Support Of Education (CASE):
• Professional Speaker, “Collaborative Leadership In Development” CASE Fusion Dist III & IV Conference – New Orleans-February 2011.
• Professional Speaker, “Marketing & Branding For Planned Giving” CASE District IV Conference – Fort Worth TX March 2012
• 2011 Nominee CASE Conference District IV Rising Star Award.
• Chair, Planned Giving Track for CASE District IV 2012 Conference – Fort Worth TX

Faculty, Workshop for Newcomers in Development—Spring Session 2012/Introduction to Personal Solicitation – Denver CO