Shared Leadership: A New Way to Lead - Essay Sample

Introduction

For a long time, leadership models have been focused on the mottos and philosophies where one leads and others obey and follow. Such kinds of models are about leadership which is focused on a single individual. However, the changing economic contexts have transformed the concept of singular leadership into one of shared leadership. According to Carson, Tesluk and Marrone, (2007), shared leadership differs from singular leadership since, in singular leadership, one person is leading the group while in shared leadership, several people come together to lead the group. It should be noted that leadership is an imperative aspect of the success of the group regarding its performance. Carson et al. (2007) highlighted that good leadership helps the group progress positively, whereas bad leadership can make the group perform poorly. Singular leadership has demonstrated challenges where a wrong decision made by one person can influence the outcome of the entire group. However, in shared leadership, a group makes a decision hence it is well-though-out and hence fewer chances of making a wrong decision. Carson et al. (2007) noted that shared leadership has been found to lead to promote innovativeness as well as commitment among the team members as they feel appreciated in the group. Therefore, it is possible to transform the organization with reintegrated teams.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Leadership entails facilitation which is a process of helping different groups so that they can work cooperatively as well as effectively. It should be noted that facilitation can be significantly helpful especially for the individuals who, based on particular levels of insecurity, tend to lurk rather than participating. Therefore, co-facilitation has developed as an approach that can be found between different people who need to work together to complete a particular task (Pearce & Conger, 2002). Co-facilitating and shared group leadership is related in the organizational and group context in that they are all geared towards achieving a particular objective as a team. However, the co-facilitators are not involved in a particular piece of work, but instead, they move outside and inside a given material. However, there are some instances when one facilitator can take the role of leadership to direct certain requirements. It is imperative for the co-facilitators to trust each other, such that one can move from their workplace to another workplace belonging to another facilitator. Therefore, the main challenge that encompasses this context is the facilitators being in unity with each other, being able to work together and establishing whether to involve themselves in a particular activity and when to do so.

The facilitators are required to have the same view of matters and support one another in their assignments (Fletcher & Kaufer, 2003). Another challenge that facilitation faces are the repetition of similar ideas between facilitators. It is important for the co-facilitators not to repeat the words and ideas of another colleague since it amounts to a waste of time. Additionally, the co-facilitators are not required to give responses among themselves. This is so since when they respond to one another, it will seem like a discussion between themselves rather than a discussion between the facilitators and other members of the group (Pearce & Conger, 2002). In this regard, this paper seeks to analyze and discuss the concept of shared group leadership and co-facilitating in the context of the group activity carried out.Shared Leadership During Group Process During Pre-Group Planning

This projected entailed a group task where for the past 12 weeks, the author participated in an experiential group in her SWO-438 course, which was temporally directed by the professor who shared her leadership role amongst students. The professor facilitated this by informing the students about being divided into two's and having to facilitate a group session based-on a chosen topic for one of the weekly sessions. Every session would last at least 20 minutes. To understand the undertakings, this group will be described, over the course of its life-span, from the pre-group planning where members collaboratively shared reasons with regard to the purpose of the group. For example, students analyzed the group's foundation where they discussed that it should be built upon relation and experiences amongst members in reference to their college status. For this reason, the members expected to gain some sort of mutual aid from colleagues who experienced similarities within their journey as a college student. Additionally, the professor decided to allow students to develop effective and acceptable courses of behaviors that are intended to avoid problems and to ensure the quality of group dynamics.

Group formation is an imperative aspect were the individuals who want to form the group, including the leaders sharing leadership and the members have to consider some matters before the formation. Some of the issues that have to be considered include the need for the creation of the group and the expected group members. Additionally, the number of people required by the group, and the time to be taken to form the group should also be considered. These considerations are important in the group formation where the development is then categorized into four stages including coming up with the purpose of the group, the size of the group, the composition of the group, and the enrolment of members as illustrated by Pearce (2004). The first step is the formulation of the purpose of the group. The reason for the formation of the group must be well explained by the leaders to the members. The sharing group leaders also have to tell the members the confinement and activities of the group. Additionally, the sharing leaders have to make it known to the members their expectations from them (Pearce, 2004).

Once the group is formed, the sharing leaders should establish the group's composition. This was determined based on the description which could either be hetero or homo. Homo implies that the group members should share one thing in common. This could be in the form of age or interest. Conversely, Hetero implies that there is a diversity in the group members. For instance, the members may be from different education levels or even different backgrounds. The group can also be open or closed. In an open group, one can join at any time in life while in a closed group, an individual is only allowed to join the group at a particular time. The group size is another vital aspect of consideration. The sharing leadership should come up with the number of people required. In general, a group consisting of eight members to twenty members is taken as the ideal group.

Contracting was the final crucial aspect of group formation that was conducted to ensure that the group was fully operational. It should be noted that the sharing group leaders and members have to come up with conditions that are to be followed and the responsibilities of each person. As illustrated by Pearce (2004), duties may include completing assignments on time and the assurance of group meeting attendance. In a shared group leadership, the decision-making process goes through all the leaders. It is important for all the leaders to agree on the decision and the way forward hence all the details must be analyzed by every individual. For instance, in the case that disciplinary action has to be taken on a group member, all the leaders of the group have to agree on the decision and the appropriate action that should be made. In some decisions where not every member of the group agrees with the decision, then the decision is made based on the majority view. Such decisions can be subjected to voting to make a decision. For this reason, the sharing group leaders should not disagree amongst themselves for this brings division and can lead to the downfall of the group (Pearce & Conger, 2002).

Despite the advantages of the group formation and activities, one disadvantage of this process that was noted regards the decision-making. In a shared group leadership, the decision-making process is slow due to the numerous consultations. In this regard, a shared group leadership consumes a lot of time compared to the groups led by a single individual. It is recommended that the students engaged in such groups should deploy measures to ensure they do not waste much time and safe time for their school time, family, work and also leisure. Additionally, it is important for the group meetings should end in time to avoid bias on one side, leaving the other activities. Making of the decisions is important as the decisions made an impact on the development of a group. The reason is that if the group leaders make the right decisions, the group will positively move forward and develop. However, if the sharing group leaders make the wrong decisions, the group will be negatively affected, and the development process will be difficult. Leaders also have a vital role to play as their choices also impact the cohesion and safety in the group. Good leaders should encourage people to work together to achieve coherence. The leaders should also include every group member in their strategies to bring inclusivity. Additionally, the group leaders should assure their members' safety by promoting them to be each other's keepers.

Reflection and "Do-Over"

Accountability is an imperative part of the success of the group's mission. Therefore, this reflection focuses on the moment when some of the group members refused to be accountable for the mistakes that they had committed. They were assigned work by one of the group leaders, but then they did it in a shoddy manner that misled other group members. Their action led to time wastage because we were forced to repeat the work as a whole. In this regard, leaders should be firm to make critical decisions on behalf of the rest of the members when there is misbehavior. If I were a co-facilitator in the session, I would make sure that every group member is held accountable for their mistakes. Effective leaders are those that know what they need to bring a sense of accountability in their groups (Fletcher, & Kaufer, 2003). Without liability in a group, it is tough for the group to achieve its mission.

A good leader should clear the confusion in his or her group. They can do so by letting the group members know that they should value their participation in the group as much as the team contribution. Fletcher and Kaufer (2003) illustrated that each member must be accountable in their actions to achieve the group's mission. In my group, I would lead the group members towards accountability for all their actions and ensure that they are on behalf of the team and its goals. Additionally, they should also value their contribution to the group as it is as essential as the team contribution in helping the group achieve its aim. The members who carelessly did their work were supposed to repeat the work in the right manner rather than reassigning the task. Failure to that, appropriate disciplinary action was to be taken.

Mezzo Policies

The mezzo policies attribute for the bringing of development and social work to small levels in the society such as the neighborhoods. According to Lyons (2016), Mezzo policies involve direct interaction with individuals. However, they consider helping groups at a time. As a group, the mezzo policies helped us because our institution had experienced some cases of bullying in the past. Our group practiced the mezzo policies when we hosted a presentation in the school, about bullying and how students can help stop bullying in the school.

Addressing Diversity

A group leader must always think about diversity. Diversity in groups can ta...