We Don’t Need Teamwork, We Need Shared Leadership
Unraveling the myth of teamwork, we delve into the transformative concept of shared leadership. A paradigm shift from traditional hierarchical structures, shared leadership fosters collective decision-making, empowering every team member. Let's explore how this innovative approach can redefine the dynamics of your organization.
Shared leadership is a powerful way to combine effective leadership with high-quality team interaction
We know a great deal about the “processes” that make teams effective-things like psychological safety, constructive conflict, and information sharing. We pay little attention to the “inputs” that maximize these team processes.
- One of the most promising inputs that deserve attention is leadership.
Egolessness
Ideally, we: (a) show a willingness to take on leadership roles, but only when the team needs us to do so; (b) defer leadership roles to whoever is the expert for the topic at hand; and (c) step aside and let others lead without judgment or concern.
- Awareness
- For egoless role exchange to happen seamlessly and efficiently necessitates self-awareness and other-awareness of work-related skills, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.
Pros, Cons, and Caveats
Increased diversity of thought
- Higher quality of decision-making
- Increases back-up behaviors
- Facilitates specialization through the division of labor
- The biggest detriment to shared leadership is that it can be costly in terms of communication and coordination
Grounded in Role Theory
The shared leadership concept is grounded in role theory, which suggests that individuals’ work-related contributions and interaction patterns can be categorized into several buckets
- Navigators set the direction and orchestrate tasks
- Engineers solve problems and deliver outputs
- Teams are more effective when each of these roles is owned by one or more members
- Artfully claim and grant these leadership roles given their circumstances at any one point in time
Final thoughts
Effective leadership and high-quality team interactions are two of the strongest predictors of organizational performance
Role Exchange Mindset
Whoever is best-suited for a specific leadership role should be the one to claim that leadership role
- A role exchange mindset entails: (a) getting comfortable with constantly going back-and-forth between leading and following
- Taking on leadership roles when the time is right
- Encouraging others to take the lead when they show an interest in doing so
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