3.6. Be a Collaborative Leader

These seven responsibilities and their corresponding assignments—managing cadence, generating ideas, nurturing a safe culture, developing connections, satisficing, engaging the issues, and tracing the topography of the conversation, workflow, and decisions—are task-independent. Meaning that, when you do them, you are leading co-creators, not just a leader of any particular effort to solve a problem.

By enabling people to interact this way, you are helping them fill in the pervasive Air Sandwich that limits an organization's success. As a leader, you will foster the necessary learning, discovery, debates, and discussions; provide the context; set the cadence; decide when to move on; and know what happens next. It's a tough role, but it's a fun one, because you get to help an entire crew of people bring their passion and ideas to the table to benefit the company.