By Kholwaphi Mdziniso | 2019-06-25
When studying leadership excellence, you get to realise that leaders that make it big are those that understand that leadership is shared.
A distinguished leader is a person that is the first among his/her equals.
Though institutions have a single person at the pinnacle of the organisation this does not necessary mean that the head has to operate in isolation, but it means that power has been delegated to the head so that the buck stops with him in that organisation.
Each institution has to have a leader who is the commander in chief.
Why? Because when people are left without authority, then that institution turns into an uncontrollable state, hence power is delegated to a single individual to control and keep sanity of the organisation.
The Swazi culture
Our culture sterns from an ideology that leadership is shared. For this reason the chief or the king rules or lead with or in council (emabandla).
The King, chief etc. makes rulings on issues and makes decisions in council meaning that even though the absolute power to endorse any decision rests with the leader as the commander in chief, the decision has been taken in consultation with the executive through consultation and consensus.
In this day and age, leaders need to realise that leadership that adds value is not a one man show but it is leadership that is shared.
For organisations to thrive, leaders should optimise the law of synergy through involving people that have been elevated to the executive level such as the council for that institution.
The pyramid structure of an organisation
Many people and leaders may see the pyramid structure of an organisation having a single person in its pinnacle and assume that leadership is an individual thing yet the opposite is true, leadership is shared.
The pinnacle structure is there to enable the organisation to function properly and well. The pinnacle that has the CEO, managing director, manager, chief, King etc is there to ensure that there is a person that is accountable and responsible for the functionality of that organisation, because if not then the organisation becomes a dysfunctional institution.
The essence of shared leadership
The 21st Century enterprises are constantly under pressure because everything changes too fast for one individual to know how to best respond; there are many explanations for any event, and multiple perspectives are needed to understand what that event means and decide what to do; a pipeline of future leaders is essential to companies’ long term success.
No wonder organisations today are drawn to the benefit of leadership that is shared, rather than that concentrated in a single, charismatic individual.
Regardless of the exact organisational structure or what it’s called, the times seem to call for leaders who can be first among equals.
Shared leadership is more than delegation. It has to do with a team sharing a sense of purpose and responsibility for the overall leadership of the company.
Different people may spearhead different aspects of the team’s work, but everyone is in charge, always.
Global trends on shared leadership
Recent research on change management teams, virtual teams and new startup teams has shown that teams in which leadership is shared, rather than vested on a single individual, can be very effective, demonstrating through computable methods that shared leadership can, and does, lead to improved organisational performance.
And yet organisations remain stubbornly hierarchical.
Any leader who has tried to share the burdens and privileges of leadership in their teams can notice that doing so is far from straightforward, hence it makes it necessary for the leader to always keep in check on the different teams of the organisation because though shared leadership is the best in motivating and increasing productivity, yet still the leader at the pinnacle is still answerable for all issues as the commander in chief of the organisation.
Some authors suggest that despite its appeal in the accounts of management gurus, sharing leadership does not make the life of the leader any easier. But it does make it very different.
Switching to shared leadership
Changing from a one man show to shared leadership, the transition requires you, the formal boss, to shift focus from interpreting information and formulating decisions to understanding and managing emotional tensions and shifting relationships: between executive team members; between them and you; and across the team’s boundaries.
Beneath are some patterns to look for in each of the three relationship domains as mentioned above.
There is the need for the leader to recognise when and how these patterns occur, bringing them to the team’s attention, and managing the emotions that underpin them is the leader’s main challenge in successfully implementing shared leadership.
The three domains are: relationships between team members, relationships with you as a leader as well as relationships with the other levels below.
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