ABSTRACT
This chapter examines team leadership, also known as collaborative, distributive, collective, and shared leadership, as an increasingly important role of the urban community college president or chancellor and his or her executive team. Team or collaborative leadership of the community college represents a cultural shift from viewing leadership as an individual and solitary trait to viewing it as a shared and collaborative trait among many. The mutual learning mind-set assumes that all team members have knowledge and information, all relevant information will be shared, all members can state their views, differences are opportunities for learning, and all members can contribute to the decisions and recommendations of the team. Urban community college leaders are creating collaborative enterprises that engage students, faculty, and staff, and community constituencies in problem-solving and decision-making processes. Through leaders and collaborative teams who embrace the ideals of social justice and equality, the ideals of a multiracial democracy can be achieved at the local level and well beyond.
