The Power of Collaboration: How Female Leaders Transform Through Partnership

In this inspiring segment from the Dynamic Women podcast, we delve into the transformative power of collaboration among women leaders. I have the pleasure of speaking with Katherine, Barb, and Jeanine about how working alongside other leaders, particularly female leaders, has shaped their approach to leadership and business. Their responses reveal the profound impact of authentic partnership and shared vision.

Finding Your Collaborative Sweet Spot

Diane: How has collaboration with other leaders influenced your perspective on leadership, and specifically female leaders?

Katherine: I have two thoughts here because I've seen it go either way. I've had either the best relationships with other female leaders or the worst. The men are kind of in between. I am fortunate in the career I have now because I get to choose. It's my own company, I choose who I work with, and I'm very values-oriented.

First of all, one thing I've learned about myself is that I am at my best, and I produce the best concepts and programs when I collaborate with others. I get a lot of energy from building on others' ideas and making something new. That's my driving force.

I've been fortunate to find people. I have a dear business colleague I've worked with 15-plus years, maybe 20 now, in Norway, and we are very family-first. We support each other, and if something comes up with family, the other steps in. Having that collaboration and being able to sort of hand-off and present as a united front, you're always trying to make the other person look good, right? Even if something goes wrong, you just slide in and make them shine. I have the same philosophy when it comes to clients: make them shine. Collaboration is really key for me.

The one thing, and that's how we met, Diane, was at the WNorth conference almost a year ago. That was the first all-female conference I have ever been to. Don't know what I was waiting for, but it was very interesting because there was an atmosphere of sharing and vulnerability and openness, which does not equal weakness. To me, it was this strength of "This is who I am. This is where I am. This is what I want. How can we help each other?" That, I think, is more unique to constructive female relationships when they work. I love collaboration for sure.

Diane: I'm hearing some key things: Is this something that's good for you? People have to ask themselves, "Is collaboration good?" And then follow the energy of it and make sure your values are in alignment, that's crucial.

How about you, Barb? 

The Foundation of Gratitude and Curiosity

Barb: I think I've lived a very blessed life, but honestly, I think there's a component of gratitude that I've had through my life: gratitude for things that a lot of people don't look at when they're younger. I can remember writing in my teens a list of all the people who I was grateful for and the things that I'd learned from them, and they turned out to be all women.

I was lucky. My grandmother had raised three children on her own in the '50s when her husband passed away, and she ran the Kincardine newspaper. She owned that for a few years and was part of the community, so she has a very strong personality. Two of my great aunts: one was the head of one of the school board music programs for the entire district, and the other one had been in the war. She was a nurse in the war and had incredible stories, but she spent 30 years as a nurse.

All these women were in my life. All my bosses that I worked for were women. I can remember being at an event when I was working, we were young, so I was in my late teens and some of the other girls were like, "You're in talking to the b&%$h." And I went, "What?" And they said, "The b&%$h, you know, the woman who's in charge of us." And I said, "Did you know that she's actually really nice?" She was such a lovely person, and she had a lot of teenage children to look after, basically.

When they realized that I wasn't the same way, I love to collaborate with the people who were in positions to do the work that I was interested in. I wanted to see what other people had done. I wanted to know how I could be better. I was always asking questions, and I was just fortunate to be around a lot of people who had answers. I was lucky that way.

Diane: Did you catch the three action items here? One: Write down your gratitude for those people who are supporting you and teaching you and mentoring you, and the things that you've learned from them. And go and speak to the people that maybe intimidate you.

Second: We need to play for the same team. I could give business stories, but I'll give just a quick soccer one. On the soccer field, I'm competitive, and I've come from a very high-level soccer background. Now I'm in a rec league, but there are other competitive people, and sometimes we get a bit aggressive with each other, and sometimes there are little words said here and there and I end up not liking some players. I realized, when there is a player I don’t like, I need to sub for their team so I can play with them, connect with them, and be their teammate, so that I can like them. Once the game is over, they're my best friend because we're on the same team. We're not competing against each other. That can be taken to all places of the world, in all different areas of life.

Third: Curiosity, asking questions of others. Sometimes, collaboration isn't "Let's go into partnership on something" or "Let's promote each other." It doesn't have to be that. It can be a mentor-mentee type of relationship for collaboration as well.

Barb: A point to that is that you often learn whether you are the mentor or the mentee. If you're open to learning, that happens both ways. A lot of times, the people who were my elders, who were my mentors growing up, learned a lot from me as well.

Diane: Thanks Barb. People can read your piece in the book and get some more wisdom from you. How about you, Jeanine? Where have you had collaboration? How has that really influenced your perspective on leadership?

Beyond Transactional: The Gift of Shared Resources

Jeanine: I really appreciate, Diane, your piece around actually getting a sense of the following: the more you build relationship, the more there's a desire to work together, to collaborate, to co-create. The sense that it doesn't have to be one direction, it can be shared.

I think I saw that as an attorney doing deals with organizations, whether it was a small company or a big company, or I was working at Motorola or at Google. Whether I was negotiating with somebody who was just a tiny little startup or a large organization, there was possibility, there was leverage, there were resources across the spectrum. 

I bring that a lot into my purpose-led work now with leaders where they're often working with community members and multiple stakeholders and maybe funders. The resource that each stakeholder brings is significant. There's a contribution to be made from every direction, and there's learning, and there's growth, and there's possibility for gratitude or receiving from each of those stakeholders as well.

Taking that moment to really get a sense, I sit on the board of World Pulse, which is a global social network for women in over 200 countries, thousands of women. They're really focused on connecting women's voices and sharing women's stories and supporting women change-makers across the globe. I sit on the board and have sat on the executive board for the last eight years, but I also have done significant work with their community members, grassroots members around the world. When these groups come together, they each have an insight, they have resources, they have lived experience and perspective that contribute and make the organization thrive.

Where I see that collaboration is really remembering that it isn't transactional, it isn't in one direction. It's understanding the gift, the resource, and the capacity to receive from all seats.

Diane: And how can we have everyone win, right? That's why the collaborative books that I've done—this is the fourth in the series: Dynamic Women® Success Secrets, Confidence Secrets, Trailblazer Secrets, and now Leadership Secrets. The reason why I wanted to do it is seen in your piece around sharing stories and sharing voices and coming together, because I kept meeting amazing women like you all who maybe they had a book but wanted to be in that experience with others, or they didn't have a book and felt they maybe didn't have the right to write—the permission to be an author. They felt they didn't know enough to write, and didn't have enough accolades or external validation to be able to write. And their stories were incredible. Their expertise is amazing. I'm like, "We've got to share this with more people."

This is where I think, in collaboration, some people need to step up and say, "I've got a platform, I have the knowledge, I will make this happen." And then there are others who just have to say, "Yes, I think I can do it. I think I can be part of that. I don't know how, but I know that being part of this group is going to make it better."

So I applaud all of you for saying yes, either for the first time, or saying yes for the second or third time, for being part of this book.

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This meaningful conversation highlights the essence of what we explore on the Dynamic Women podcast: authentic discussions about leadership growth, business innovation, and personal transformation with remarkable women leaders. These three inspiring voices are contributing authors to the Dynamic Women Leadership Secrets Book. If you want to order your copy, go here: https://leadershipsecretsbook.dynamicwomen.biz