Collaborative Leadership and Irrational Exuberance

Abstract

Hamdan Bin Mohammed eUniversity – Annual Congress 2011, Theme: Being at the Leading Edge – How to give the Quest for Excellence a New Meaning, Virtual Executives Club Dinner, Theme: “Collaborative Leadership”, the Recovery Act and Beyond, Collaborative Leadership and Irrational Exuberance, Sir John Daniel Commonwealth of Learning // It is a pleasure to be in Dubai and I thank you for the honour of addressing your Virtual Executives Club. Your theme is Collaborative Leadership: the Recovery Act and Beyond and I have entitled my contribution Collaborative Leadership and Irrational Exuberance. // As your first speaker this evening after the Chancellor’s gracious welcome it may be useful if I define some terms and sound some warnings. You are experienced executives and know that writing about management and leadership is full of fads and fashions – some of them signifying nothing. Collaborative leadership is a trendy term, but what is it? To those whose image is the leader as hero, it sounds like a contradiction, what we call an oxymoron, when two opposites are juxtaposed. // After exploring collective leadership I shall talk about the dangers of groupthink and irrational exuberance. You know all about groupthink and irrational exuberance in the business sector here so I shall take a different example. You are the Virtual Executives Club, so I shall recall irrational exuberance in the virtual world, the online world which is the home of our host tonight, the Hamdan bin Mohammed eUniversity. // That will lead me to reflect on strategic planning. I will suggest what makes a good plan and how collaborative leadership helps to create one. I shall use universities as my example, but what I have to say will be relevant to your own attempts at collaborative leadership.