Teamership: Lead and follow
Great team members lead and follow in response to their teams' needs. Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash
As a concept, Teamership embraces the idea of integrating (rather than differentiating) the roles of leadership and team membership. Here’s what happens when team members excel at this integration. It leads to what we can call shared leadership - where leadership responsibilities are distributed within a group and not centralised to the hierarchical leader.
From academic research, shared leadership has been demonstrated as a benefit for high performing teams. A 2014 meta-analysis by D’Innocenzo, and others supports the positive relationship between shared leadership and team performance. For that to take place, it requires individuals to be able to identify and respond to opportunities for both leadership and followership - often in the space of a short time.
Traditionally, leading and following are seen as roles for different people. The boss leads and the team members follow. This works in constant and predictable environments - not in dynamic ones. It works when the boss has visibility and expertise that is equal or greater than the rest of the team.
This does not work when team members are the experts.
In dynamic settings, the ability to assume leadership responsibilities where it is appropriate, adds value to teams. There are many ways that this can play out. One example arises due to the fact that work is becoming increasingly specialised. In this environment, it is likely that the highest level of expertise resides within the team (and not the leader alone). When this is the case, teams benefit from the people with the most expertise recommending solutions and a course of action - despite these responsibilities being traditionally being the domain of a team leader.
In this same example of team members assuming traditional leader responsibilities, we could also see the value of a leader assuming traditional team member responsibilities. With a course of action recommended, the team benefits from the leader being willing to participate and contribute to that course of action. We could loosely call this following.
The ability to both lead and follow in response to situational requirements supports adaptability, team awareness and putting the team first. Individuals’ mindset of being willing to both lead and follow is increasingly important as teams and organisations respond to an increasingly complex and changing operating environment.
Some questions for you to consider this week:
How can you better take leadership responsibilities in your teams where you are not the appointed leader?
When can you serve your teams by following the lead of others?