COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP – THE NEED OF HOUR

Anything which is permanent in this world, is change. We see the same in our day to day life. Innovations are increasing like population taking place in every element of this universe. The corporate world is no exception. One recent innovation in business leadership is development of the Collective Leadership. Gone are the days when an individualistic approach of the leadership was appreciated. When Ford developed new cars, showing his individual leadership quality, he earned all the praises. Every company wished to have somebody as superheroes or saviours, who could generate growth and could take them out from crises.

The scenario has changed in this present corporate world. Now, like a team effort, the need for collective leadership has started to be felt. It has been seen that team can be a critical differentiator for any organization. Becoming JACK OF ALL TRADE is quite an impossible task in this complex corporate world. So there is a need of a specialised leader i.e. each leader to have a special quality that could differentiate him from the other. There should what is called portfolio leadership concept. And collective leadership i.e. the combined efforts of all different portfolio leaders should come together collectively to meet the strategic imperatives of the corporations. With this effort, dealing with diverse situation; such as; crisis, transition, growth and stability, will be quite easier. In fact, in this present scenario of recession this need of the collective leadership is more relevant. Recession demands every leader to come together and to check out where the actual problem lies in the respective organization.

Very specifically, development of this collective skill as well as making organization more lissom and compliant can be met through Collective Leadership. The requirement of legitimacy and resilience is even more critical to the corporate world. In this period of crisis what is also required is to keep your human inventories intact. The leadership qualities that need to be taken care of, to keep intact human resources are to counsel employees and communicate with them. Leaders need to encourage employees to innovate and to truly understand the nuances and requirements of the business. Although the route is tough but it is possible in any situation, whether it is a normal situation or a crisis.

So this decentralized way of performing leadership is one of the most important tool for improving the collaborations and performance in the present complex organizations. A larger portfolio of leadership group with an open and positive mind set is a distinguishing feature of the high performing unit; also it will create the kind of communication and information distribution channel which will bring an edge to the corporations.