Make relationship building a priority for the group. According to a study of 130 companies by Vantage Partners, the

See that there's a senior champion for the effort. Many alliances are begun by senior leaders who then create a core group to do the hard work of development and implementation. That's how FedEx and the Postal Service formed their alliance. In other instances, a manager or professional develops the idea, seeks partners from other organizations, and they jointly develop their concept. The core group may have the energy and talents to create the new product or program, but not senior leadership's perspective, authority, and command of resources. The best way to get those is to find a senior champion for the project who makes it a priority.

Help everyone engage in collaborative problem solving, and make creative use of their diverse viewpoints when differences arise. In some teams people are so eager to achieve consensus they settle for lower-quality decisions; team members are reluctant to voice strong dissent and important differences of opinion are papered over. This is an understandable but terrible mistake. A team's goal is to produce a product or service at a high level of quality. Consensus is a means to achieve that. Effective collaborative leaders understand the value in entertaining different perspectives because they're driven to achieve the desired outcome, and know that a rich mix of differing views can help them get there.

Celebrate small successes, share credit widely. Most who have worked in a partnership group know the frustrating feeling: "Will we ever get from talking to action?" Collaborative efforts require much up-front work, and because the partnership is often not the highest priority for each member, time lines sometimes slip and the energy sags. Collaborative leaders help the group break down the work into manageable chunks, celebrating the small wins and recognizing others' contributions.

Provide confidence, hope, resilience. Effective collaborative leaders are tough-minded optimists. They accept that there are dozens of reasons why the initiative might falter, but they radiate an expectation of success that becomes contagious. More important than technical brilliance or political smarts is their dogged persistence and resilience.

Over and above these characteristics are four key qualities that distinguish effective collaborative leaders from those who aren't effective.

First, they combine tremendous persistence, energy, and resolve with a measured ego. Collaborative leaders have boundless energy, refuse to be deterred, yet keep their egos in check. (Interestingly, Jim Collins found the same paradoxical combination in the leaders he describes in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't.) Their persistence helps them deal with the inevitable hurdles and setbacks they face, and their ability to keep their egos in check ensures that there's plenty of space for others in the core group to make a contribution. Second (and related), they are passionate about achieving the desired outcome. It's that passion that creates much of their persistence and that moves them to seek other talented people who have creative ideas to contribute. Because the passion is about the outcome and not about their resume, they tend to build trust and goodwill.

Third, collaborative leaders pull others rather than push them. By definition, these leaders have no formal authority over their peers. They must find nondirective ways to move people in a positive direction. One way to pull is to tap some inner need or value in others, and show how to meet that need through collaboration. It's rare that money pulls talented people into a partnership; creative ideas, a compelling purpose, impassioned champions who are willing to take risks to move the project along, and the chance to work with other great people are far more likely to create the pull.

Finally, collaborative leaders think systemically. They see the interconnections in complex systems and are comfortable working interdependently. Leading in a partnership is very complex work and requires high-level systems thinking. Effective collaborative leaders understand their partners' organizations, the dynamics between them, their customers, the technology involved, and how it may change. Like world-class chess players, they know how to think several moves ahead and factor in what other players may do.

These characteristics produce effective results in many settings, of course, but they're especially powerful in environments where the final product must have shared ownership. Perhaps surprisingly, many effective politicians exhibit these characteristics. They are surrounded by people with outsized egos who are always looking for ways to get good press. They have no power over their peers (although they often wield influence when they chair committees). Those who can form coalitions to get bills passed tend to be collaborative leaders.

One example: In 1997, the mayor of a western city helped create a successful regional partnership with local officials who had resisted partnerships in the past. One observer noted that the mayor's approach was the key to turning them around: "He was always generous, treated others with respect, didn't let his ego go to his head, listened carefully, was incredibly focused and driven, was forceful but not bombastic . . . and never took 'no' for a final answer!" That's a classic definition of collaborative leadership.

Finally, a challenge to organizational leaders. It's captured in the comment of a collaboration veteran who has worked