ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that teams that perform poorly tend to be dominated by the team leader, while high-performing teams have a shared-leadership structure. Shared leadership is most effective when leaders have a sense of what their teammates can do and who should be in charge at any given time. But they generally won't know that until the team has been working together for a while. The potential for shared leadership also varies by country. Collectivism can make it easier to introduce shared leadership, while individualism is essentially at odds with the concept. People in individualistic societies are independent and self-reliant; they enjoy personal freedom. It's not a matter of choosing between hierarchical leadership and shared leadership. Instead, organizations should ask when leadership is most appropriately shared; how to develop the practice; and how to shift from a traditional management style to the new practice.
