How Shared Leadership Can Impact Team Performance

Shared leadership differs greatly from traditional leadership. Under traditional leadership, a formal leader holds authority and has a group of followers. The leader is responsible for making decisions and delegating tasks to others. Under shared leadership, there is sharing of authority, power, and influence. Although there is still a formal leader, that leader can pass authority to team members when necessary.

Research by Chiu and colleagues (2016) in the Journal of Applied Psychology examined whether shared leadership was good for teams. They examined 62 teams from various organizations in Taiwan. The researchers found that teams with shared leadership had better task performance than teams with traditional leadership. They found that this occurs because each team member has a diverse set of skills, expertise and abilities. Given that this type of leadership engages different team members as leaders at different points in time, the expertise of each person can be leveraged.

The researchers offered several recommendations for how leaders can show humility and promote shared leadership. They are as follows:

• Admit their own mistakes and limitations.
• Highlight others’ strengths and contributions.
• Show openness to new ideas and learn from others.
• Emphasize the importance of listening before speaking.
• Empower employees to take on leadership roles.