Share and share alike
Ask a child to share his or her toy and usually the child will eventually, rather reluctantly agree. But ask a corporate leader to share his or her authority and you might get a different reaction.
In the corporate world, a leader of a team, department, or division is the person with the influence and power. It's the position of authority. Most teams today have a leader. This is the person that assigns tasks, keeps the vision clear as well as negotiates conflicts. The team leader gets results. Why, then, would some leaders agree to relinquish some of their power, in essence, share their leadership position? Research is just beginning on shared leadership, but from initial studies it's clear that it's not child's play. Why embark on this path? It seems that shared leadership on complex tasks leads to increased creativity and innovation.
One of the main challenges of shared leadership comes from interactions. No longer is there a "leader-participant" dynamic. Each member needs to take an active part in role assignments, and communication. Everyone has to participate to make it effective. It may sound like this would become cumbersome, but in some scenarios the results will outweigh the challenges.
Shared leadership is most effective when:
- The task is organizationally critical.
- The task requires broader collective and intellectual resources.
- The task is urgent and likely to benefit from divergent input for quicker, more strategic solutions.
- The team is committed to this method of leadership.
In one case study, Leadership Solutions worked with a Fortune 500 corporation using a shared leadership model. The team was trying to solve a complex problem and this approach would help raise the level of creativity. Each team member brought unique perspectives, knowledge, and capabilities to the team. All the members equally influenced one another-there was not one leader. Initially, this was difficult for the team; less verbal members spent time analyzing the process and the more extroverted talked it out. The team discussed the situation and decided to debrief each meeting on a 1-10 scale so that their meetings could constantly improve. A solution emerged as all the members learned to be more direct and show restraint so that the quieter members could speak up. But after the initial adjustment, the team found they opened doors to a higher level of creativity and found novel solutions to their problems.
Leaders know that no one single approach will work for today's complex business world. Let Leadership Solutions help guide your team to the benefits of this novel approach to leadership.
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