Sharing leadership: More than simple delegation

Unlike those who have attended management training in Melbourne, some people think that leadership simply involves the delegation of tasks to others. However, true leadership is much more than this and can include multiple people.

What is shared leadership?

For many years, leadership was solely defined as an individual quality. The greats – who include Alexander, Catherine and Charlemagne – are the quintessential archetypes of this kind of leadership.

However, recent focus has shifted from individual leadership roles, in favour of a shared leadership model.

Shared leadership refers to the empowerment of individuals by offering leadership opportunities in relation to their fields of expertise. Sharing leadership roles throughout a team or organisation is an excellent way to maximise all of the human resources available in a business.

For a team to share leadership, its members will need to be able to lead one another towards the shared organisation’s goals. The key focus is on relational collaborative leadership processes that allow team members to share duties and responsibilities.

Why shared leadership? 

Due the advent of multinational companies and mass communication networks, team members are finding themselves further away while becoming more integrated at the same time.

As such, businesses are looking for ways to decentralise leadership duties and create a self-leading workforce. By doing this, businesses can create a community of leaders that are collectively responsible for a range of KPIs and other organisational goals.

How can an organisation implement shared leadership models?

Sharing leadership is not an easy task. One of the first duties is to identify roles that are too extensive for a single employee. The next step involves splitting the role into equal parts with complementary responsibilities.

A shared leadership model allows each leader to focus on the areas that they are most qualified for, allowing them to hire and develop successful teams that are horizontally structured.

A well-structured team with multiple leaders who can focus on their own areas of talent can be a game changer for an organisation. To learn more about the skills needed to develop a shared leadership  model, make sure you contact an experienced course provider today.