Principles of Co-Leadership

“Even the most talented leaders require the input and leadership of others, constructively solicited and creatively applied. It’s time to celebrate the incomplete— that is, the human — leader.”

 Ancona, Malone, Orlikowski and Senge: “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” (Harvard Business Review, 2007)

 There’s a saying in the Royal Navy that "behind every Admiral there’s a talented Rear Admiral". Yes, behind each mythically talented hero leader is often indeed the quiet partner, the most trusted advisor – the foil, counterpart, the complement not the clone.

 What we’re talking about here is the co-leader – somebody with great power and influence, even sometimes the power behind the visible figurehead.

 In an other than formal sense, the co-leader checks the power of the visible leader; dancing the line between challenge and support; testing and sometimes guiding the leader’s thinking; putting the feet to the fire out of the public gaze.

The co-leader is not necessarily the heir apparent, although he or she may be a king-maker. A co-leader who becomes a threat or a competitor for the leader is no longer a co-leader. In this sense, the leader relies on this consort for validation – and when that is withdrawn, the leader’s power becomes uncertain.

 Co-leadership carries a great deal of reward: there may not be the same visible adulation but neither is the co-leader’s head above the parapet in the same way. There is shared power, respect and authority; private recognition of ability and competence; the permission to think and act differently and for this to add in a significant way to the leadership mix. Leaders and their complements who are too temperamentally similar are bad news: part of their mutual accommodation is to acknowledge and benefit from a difference in approach. If the overt leader is a visible showman who performs on his feet, the consort may offer considered reflection and the longer view; if the leader is a master at strategy and vision, then the counterpart might have a strong suit in operational thinking and here-and-now practicality. 

For the organisation, co-leadership offers something that is greater than the sum of the two parts – the grail of leadership flexibility and situational adaptability shared across two individuals who are each their uncompromised selves. We ask a great deal of leaders and they are not superhuman. In a co-leadership arrangement, the incomplete, human leader can get on with being his or her own best self, unburdened by the need to try to be someone else –because the co-leader is already being that someone else for them and the organisation.