Leadership in Action: Learning to Share: How to Meet the Demands of Joint Leadership

SYSTEMIC SUPPORT

In addition to the advice we have offered thus far, which is based on learning from our own experience, we have hypotheses about the kind of organizational context that supports shared leadership. First, the boss of the individuals has to fully support the spirit of shared leadership. This includes recognizing and honoring the diversity that each individual brings to the partnership, encouraging the partners to work out issues among themselves, and not colluding with one partner against the other or playing favorites. Second, it is easier to practice shared leadership in an organization that sets enterprise-wide goals and objectives instead of relying only on business-unit goals to drive its work. These superordinate goals provide ...