Shared Leadership

In his best-selling book Linchpin, Seth Godin shares the example of the fast and complex Japanese transit system. It operates on schedule and on budget, not by top-down directive, but by a large pool of empowered employees making the best decisions as the challenges present themselves. “Letting people in the organization use their judgment turns out to be faster and cheaper—but only if you hire the right people and reward them for having the right attitude.”

It’s not rocket science--it is basically a way to include ALL your players and personnel in the leadership development and implementation processes.  Why limit it to just a few hand-picked players, who will undoubtedly be looked upon as favorites?  Why leave it to chance?

If you wait until players are upperclassmen, they will graduate before they can learn their leadership craft through both successes and mistakes, and unfortunately, your program will miss out on the full impact they could have. We need to start to expose, train, and encourage all of our players to lead, yes, even as young freshmen.  What is the worst that could happen? Even if they choose to pass on the call to lead, at the very least they may become better followers since they will better understand the difficulties and challenges associated with leading.  In other words, this is a clear way we can not only teach leadership principles but also create buy-in and a higher level of team cohesion and common purpose.

The idea that there could be too many “cooks in the kitchen” is a common objection to this model.  Part of the key in teaching shared leadership is that they can also learn how to become better followers and more supportive team members when it is not their turn to lead or in an area of someone else’s strength.  Wouldn't you rather have too many leaders on your team, all pulling in the same direction than not enough?

--Adapted from footballtoolbox.net

 

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?