Leadership in Collaborative Governance

The progress of collaborative governance is mainly contingent on leadership as one of the critical variables. The leaders’ unique position to influence the various aspect of collaborative governance, including the antecedent conditions, the establishment of a collaborative regime, the collaborative process of agenda setting, issue framing and facilitation, and corresponding effects on outputs, outcomes, reimplementation, and sustainability for societal benefits, cannot be overstated. Collaborative leaders are pivotal to success in all intents and purposes when dealing with complex public problems at the local, state, regional, national, and global levels. Perhaps, leadership is but one of the critical variables for collaborative governance, the reality of stakeholders’ engagements in addressing any complex public concerns or challenges, especially those with devastating effects on various population segments, warrants creative and facilitative leadership that encourages collaboration without hierarchy in ways that engender bringing the best out of the involved cross-sector stakeholders with complementary resources to reach workable solutions and impactful outcomes for the greater good. This chapter highlights the leadership factor in collaborative governance with some insights into the rudiments and contributions to collective success. The chapter integrates a model for conceptual explication and problematizing leadership to promote knowledge and understanding for academic and functional purposes within public service and society context.