A Handbook for Collaborative Leaders

Don Broadwell
Iuniverse (2023)
ISBN: 978-1663252937
Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Reader Views (01/2024)

A Handbook for Collaborative Leaders: Millennials Assess the Workplace of Today by Don Broadwell is the perfect guide for solving leadership problems. Its focus is on collaborative leaders, specifically millennials, who face unique challenges in today’s workplace.

To be a good leader, you need to know how to solve problems. The author brings 30 years of experience as a tutor, setting forth the reasoning behind it with examples.

Done well, collaboration can be an art form involving communication and specific strategies, and this book is a how-to blueprint to maximize collaborative effort.

The first part covers third-party involvement, meaning that this third party has a vested interest in the problem that is to be resolved.

The next part concerns trying to collaborate in the midst of anger, ulterior motives, and two-party efforts of collaboration; meaning when a stakeholder and facilitator are one and the same. Learning becomes one step at a time, building knowledge upon knowledge so that it has a cumulative effect.

Broadwell’s deep dive into collaborative leadership will have the wheels turning in your mind about what is possible in the workplace. It’s a new, dynamic way of thinking that usurps Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model. In practice, their internal approach seems outdated and ineffective, so an external one should be applied in today’s world, which focuses on whatever is challenging workers and the problems presented by this situation.

You’ll find thoughts from supervisors, information from case studies, and input from Broadwell’s former students. Those who participate in the workshops will design their original leader template, embracing the individual approach rather than the traditional one that doesn’t work for everyone. They will find over twenty-four intervention styles. A lot of valuable information is contained in this handbook.

This book could forever change the way you approach leadership in today’s workplace. I particularly enjoyed reading about the history of leadership and the different styles that have emerged and have been implemented over the years, some more effective than others.

The chapter called “The Making of a Millennial: No Child Left Behind” is an interesting one. This author has experience teaching teachers, so you’ll want to absorb his knowledge and expertise.

For an edge in leadership and collaboration, the dynamic A Handbook for Collaborative Leaders: Millennials Assess the Workplace of Today by Don Broadwell is a must-read.