Summary
The article descibes different choosen theories in the field of leadership. It is argued, that shared leadership is a newer approach, whithin which, followers and a leader switch roles depending on context. The article describes benefits coming out of shared leadership. At the end some guidance is provided on when shared leadership might make sense and how to generally plan such an initiative.
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1. Context – What we know about leadership
1.1. General introduction into the topic
Leadership is an important topic for research within fields such as economics and psychology. Research concentrates on leadership styles, leadership impacts and the attributes a leader should have within the process of leading.
As a first overview the following chapters will describe the difference between leadership and management (1.2.), leadership styles by Hersey & Blanchard (1.3.), managerial grid by Blake & Mouton (1.4.) and the attributes of transformative leadership (1.5.). All of these approaches concentrate on a leader, on a single person, who is or is not impacting own and others outcomes.
Though in some leadership types the leader is asking his/her followers for opinion, in most cases he/she is the center of decision making. There is another approach, which is called Shared Leadership.
A brief description of shared leadership will be conducted, too (1.6.)
1.2. Leadership Vs. Management
A leader is a person who influences behavior of another person or a group. Leadership is therefore the framework, within which an individual or a group is influenced by a leader aiming at achievement of specific goals. Compared to a manager, who is doing things in the right way, a leader is doing the right things (Bennis, Nanus).
A manager is focusing on the realization of plans and following rules of others, while a leader has his own vision of the future. A manager seeks to conserve existing structures and order, while a leader is assisting adaptive changes.
1.3. Leadership styles by Hersey & Blanchard
Within this concept leadership is seen as depended from the situation. The leader should adapt his/her leadership style dynamically to the situation.
Situation is defined as the level of maturity of the leader. The maturity level depends on both, the employees motivation and the employees competence. Both can be either high or low.
Depending on the situative combination the leader could or even should choose from a list of 4 leadership styles:
* Leader: Directive Style -> Employee (High motivation, low competence)
* Leader: Coaching Style -> Employee (Low motivation, low competence)
* Leader: Participation Style -> Employee (Low motivation, high competence)
* Leader: Delegating Style -> Employee (High motivation, high competence)
Now the question is, what these 4 styles mean when it comes to a leaders behavior:
* Directive Style (high task orientation, low relationship orientation): Leader defines roles, sets rules, makes decisions, has an overview over the progress, communication in one direction
* Coaching Style (high task orientation, high relationship orientation): Leader defines roles, listens to employee suggestions, makes decisions
* Participation Style (low task orientation, high relationship orientation): Leaders delegate daily business decisions to employees. Leaders simplify situations and take part in decision making process.
* Delegating Style (low task orientation, low relationship orientation): Leaders take part in decision making, but participation in decision making process is dependend on employees decision. Employee is evaluting for success.
1.4. Managerial grid by Blake & Mouton
The managerial grid by Blake & Mouton differentiates between task orientation and peoples orientation, too. The managerial grid differentiates 5 leadership styles:
* Style 1,1 – Indifferent style (low people orientation, low task orientatoin): Minimalizing efforts, efforts only in order to maintain position in company
* Style 1,9 – Accomodating style (high people orientation, low task orientation): Leader is seeking to build harmony among employees, which should help in building performance (but is not always)
* Style 9,1 – Authoritarian style (low people orientation, high task orientation): Leader is forcing obedience and concentrates on providing a framework for employees to fulfill their task properly.
* Style 5,5 – Behavioral style (average people orientatoin, average task orientation): Leadership is balanced. Both objective goals and subjective needs are considered. Bot might not be met at a high percentage.
* Style 9,9 – Team style (high people orientation, high task orientation): Leaders seek growing teamwork, engagement and motivation among workers. Should help in the belief, that workers are pursueing a common goal, that they need to cooperate and that they are an important part of the company.
1.5. Transformative and transactional Leadership
Transformational leadership means, that a leader is leading with the help of a vision and inspiring others, while developing together with the members of the group. The transformational leadership has its focus on changing the future, based on the vision. Typical attributes are:
* Increasing intrinsic motivation of employees by involvement
* Increasing ethical culture and decision making
* Concentration on higher goals and common goods
* Persuasion based on rational argumentation
* Coaching and mentoring as types of leadership
Transactional leadership on the other hand focusses on supervision, organization and performance. It uses rewards and punishment as mechanisms. The transactional leadership has its focus on maintaining the present. Subsets of the transactional leadership are Management by objetcives (MBO) and Management by exception (MBE)
1.6. Shared Leadership
Shared leadership can be seen through different lenses.
Aggregation approach: Leadership is going over from an individual to an unknown group of individuals. There is no exact definition on who exactly should be the leader in which situation. It is characterized by a commonly conducted leadership behavior by the whole group and its individual members.
Social network approach: Leadership is the connection between 2 individuals within a group, while the connection is one of many connections within a web of connections. Connections can be identified on a 0-1 scale, as 0=leader and 1= follower. This means, that within one connection, one individual A is the leader, while the other one B is the follower. Individual A might be a follower within another connection. It is characterized by the distribution of leadership influence across multiple individuals according to their connections.
Distribution: Centralization approach: It is charaterized by a set of responsibilities and rights which is centrally available, is not directly connected to any team member and is distributed depending on the situation. The individual with the most connections/abilities when it comes to the centrality, has the most powerful role within a team.
2. Conflict – Shared leadership, not only participation in decision making
In general traditional approaches focus on the leadership style of an individual, who is in charge. In most cases the factor which differentiated the style was the focus on people and the focus on tasks. As an additional factor style was differentiated by degree of participation of employees in decision making, while a one person was still the formally appointed leader.
Now the question is whether a distribution of leadership on multiple individuals by any method will increase leadership and group outcomes. Another question might be, whether ineffective leadership might be improved by shared leadership.
3. Climax – Shared leadership increases group outcomes
The following results are taken from a scientific meta-analysis by Lauren D’Innocenzo, John E.Mathieu & Michael R. Kukenberger.
3.1. Shared leadership positively impacts team performance
In a meta analysis the authors have found, that shared leadership is positively related to team performance.
3.2. Various specific definitions of shared leadership have a stronger relationship
Furthermore it was found, that the more a definition of shared leadership accounted for complexities, the higher the impact was. Especially two concepts have shown increased impact. Both, the central network approach and the centralization approach have shown a higher impact on team performance compared to the aggregation approach of shared leadership.
3.3. Team task complexity decreases impact of shared leadership impact on team performance
Authors have found, besides the upper findings, that team task complexity decreased the strengh of relationship between shared leadership and team performance
4. Conclusion – Implementation and benefits of the shared leadership approach
4.1. When to adapt to the shared leadership approach
Which circumstances indicate, that adapting to shared leadership is a good idea?
* Unbalanced leadership: If there is an unbalanced leadership situation
* Not being a leader is valuable: If a company wants to show, that not being a formal leader does not restrict advancement, development and success.
* Future leadership: If the goal is to develop future leaders
* Responsibility: If teaching responsibility is one of the main goals of the company.
4.2. Which prerequisites should be true to implement a change in leadership culture
The following prerequisites should be considered, when planning adaptation to the shared leadership approach
* Mindset: Change in mindset of top management down to lower management (Top Down approach)
* Responsibilities: Restructure the decision-framework about task responsibility (from hierarchies to abilities)
* Coaching: External Coaching for current leaders (Less leadership is not a downgrade). Read more about Executive Coaching.
* Coaching: External Coaching for current followers (More leadership comes with greater responsibility). Read more about business Coaching.
* Decision making: Change in decision making processes (More transparency, an open forum, encouragement of speaking out loud)
4.3. Impact of adaptation to the shared leadership approach
When implementing an approach of shared leadership, the following effects might come to reality:
* Performance: Individual and team performance will increase
* Acceptance of leadership: Understanding for the complexity of leadership decisions will increase throughout the whole team
* Increased adaptivity: Diversification of leadership styles due to higher involvement of different personalities and therefore better situative adaptation
* Increased innovation: Increase of innovation due to higher involvement of the whole group
* Increased motivation and engagement: Positive effects on motivation and engagement due involvement into transparent decision making processes
* Participation: Higher perceived participation in company success
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