Forcing new leadership or shared leadership

Forcing New Leadership or Shared Leadership

October 2, 2024 – Many leaders find it difficult to let go of traditional leadership tasks because they fear losing control. However, if companies want to become more agile, there’s no way around it.

Leadership has always been a process between people, as leaders are only leaders as long as others follow them and their ideas. Nonetheless, the framework in which this leadership process takes place is increasingly changing – not just due to technological progress.

Empowering Employees and Letting Go of Tasks

Companies must therefore act much more agile today than in the past – the same goes for their leaders, as during the ongoing digitalization and globalization, at least the core services of companies are increasingly provided in cross-departmental and sometimes even cross-company teams. As a result, departmental boundaries are losing importance. Therefore, leaders need to rely more on the loyalty and competence of their employees and, in a sense, grant them the freedom to act. In addition, employees must increasingly take on leadership roles in the service delivery process as (co-)responsible parties for achieving goals, depending on the situation and needs.

Leaders Become Empowerers and Relationship Managers

The core task of leaders today increasingly involves creating the necessary conditions in their area or environment so that employees can fulfill their tasks independently and make the necessary decisions, as classical controlling and steering in everyday operations is only conditionally possible due to the increased remote leadership (home office, hybrid or virtual teams, etc.). Therefore, leaders must trust their employees more.

Also Delegate Responsibility to Employees

Many find this difficult – partly for understandable reasons, as the performance of a leader is still measured by their superiors based on the performance of their employees or their team. If they do not deliver the required performance, the leader also has a problem. Therefore, the delegation of responsibility and decision-making authority is often experienced as a loss of control. This will only change when companies or their leaders also "give up" responsibility for the performance delivered in a department: If employees carry more responsibility, they must also be held accountable.

New and Shared Leadership Require New Leadership Culture

However, a corresponding change in the understanding of leadership within companies alone is not enough. The leadership role and responsibility must also be redefined: It must be determined anew according to the situation and needs and should not be bound to formal power. In other words: leadership becomes a collective task. And the employees? They become designers who also use their creative potential to independently develop and realize solutions to problems. This requires a leadership understanding that not only enables but also actively promotes the assumption of responsibility and independent action and decision-making of all individuals involved in the performance process.

Trust is the Basis for New and Shared Leadership

The basis for such an understanding of leadership is mutual trust. This means that there are leaders who do not primarily define themselves by their position-related control options but rely on the competence and loyalty of the people in the company. On the other hand, employees acting as leaders must be able to trust that they will receive the necessary support from the organization and will not be put on the spot if they make "mistakes" or take a "wrong decision."

New and Shared Leadership Relieve Leaders

Such a leadership culture not only requires the desired agility in everyday business. It is increasingly desired by employees of generations Y and Z as well. Moreover, such a leadership culture not only fosters employee job satisfaction, but it also relieves leaders, as the more tasks and operational issues employees can independently take on, the fewer tasks are on the leader's desk, and the less often they must act as "trouble shooters." This thus creates the necessary space to calmly and thoughtfully dedicate themselves to strategic questions and tasks.

Companies Should Stimulate New Leadership Culture

Such a development process does not start on its own. It must be stimulated by the companies – for example, through a corresponding leadership development program. For New Leadership to be lived in the companies, it is not only necessary for leaders to rethink their leadership behavior; they must also develop new leadership routines so that they can demonstrate the necessary behavioral security in everyday life. Otherwise, especially in times of crises and stress situations, the risk is high that they will revert to their old behavioral or stimulus-response patterns.

Author: Barbara Liebermeister