Is Sharing Really a Virtue in Leadership?

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“Sharing is caring!” It’s a phrase that we heard as children and a phrase that we’ve repeated as parents and caregivers of youth. Most religious traditions affirm sharing as a virtue. Sharing is embedded in our human systems of values and ethics. However, what happens when sharing is applied to leadership? Is it still a virtue, or a weakness to be avoided?

Let’s start with the question, is sharing a weakness to be avoided? If we look at leadership as it is modeled by the current president of the United States, the answer could be a resounding “YES.” “Command and control” leadership styles that dominated organizations in the mid-twentieth century, focused on centralizing power and decision-making at the top of a rigid, hierarchical structure. The extreme of that is what we’re seeing in the rise of political authoritarianism. That kind of leader is a “strongman,” or someone who exerts control with little regard to what it costs others. Closing borders, imposing high tariffs on imports, withdrawing from global partnerships and pacts, shutting down aid programs—these are all actions that limit or halt sharing in an effort to exert control and establish dominance.

At a more personal or local level, we see the persistence of “command and control” leadership styles. It’s in leaders who isolate themselves, who guard secrets, who make decisions without the input of those affected by the decisions. In an attempt to maintain a firm grip on leading the organization, these kinds of leaders often miss opportunities to broaden their perspective, learn, and grow which can lead to a difficulty in adapting to change and responding to emerging needs.

Let’s turn now to the question, is sharing a virtue in leadership to be fully embraced without limits? If authoritarianism and “command and control” leadership is one end of a spectrum, I would argue that limitless sharing in leadership is the other end. A leader who shares power, responsibility, and decision-making freely without limits can be just as destructive as one who keeps a choke-hold on power, responsibility, and decision-making. The risk in these cases is a leadership that is devalued and can be undermined easily. A leader who shares to an extreme can be viewed as weak, ineffective, and incompetent in some cases.

What then is a leader to do? The answer lies in finding the middle ground that works for both the leader and the organization. Sharing in leadership is complex and nuanced. It is a virtue that needs some boundaries.

One approach is to adopt a collaborative leadership model. A 2011 Harvard Business Review article by Hermina Ibarra and Morten T. Hansen posed the question, “Are You a Collaborative Leader?” At a time when social media was just taking off, their research of CEOs revealed that leaders who were more collaborative were better able to manage the changes brought on by emerging technologies than those leaders who gravitated toward a “command and control” style. Ibarra and Hansen identified four things that collaborative leaders tend to do really well:

1. Collaborative leaders make connections that help them spot opportunities. These are connections that help the leader see and experience the world beyond the organization. Get involved in associations and organizations that expand your professional network. Attend conferences outside of your specialization. Seek opportunities to speak and work with people outside your organization. These actions help leaders gain valuable perspective that can lead to innovation.

2. Collaborative leaders engage diverse talent and viewpoints to produce results. Just as it is important to seek connections from outside the organization, it is important to build connections from within. Cultivating a team who is made up of people from different backgrounds and represent a variety of skills and experiences has been shown to produce better results than a team consisting of people with similar backgrounds, skills, and experiences. Bringing the team together is just the first step, though. Engaging everyone at every level takes time and attention. It requires intentionality and commitment.

3. Collaborative leaders model collaboration at the top level. For large organizations, this means starting with C-suite or senior leadership. As the management circle adopts collaboration and becomes more comfortable with this style of working together, then individual department heads can begin to model collaboration within their teams. In a smaller organization, such as a library director with a team of five to seven staff members, this means helping the entire organization shift into a more collaborative mode of working. What joint responsibilities are shared alongside individual goals? How are collective goals and collective responsibilities reflected in overall performance expectations and compensation structures? Are team members encouraged to attend to learning goals as well as their performance? A team is only as strong as the sum of its parts, and investment in the form of professional development needs to be present at both the team and individual levels.

4. Collaborative leaders show a strong hand to speed decision-making and ensure agility. Too often, leaders who seek to share their power and responsibility with their teams get mired in consensus-seeking. This can be especially paralyzing in small organizations experiencing change and transition. One significant difference between leading by consensus and leading by collaboration lies in the source of authority and power. In a consensus model, everyone has equal authority. This can work fine in small, stable teams where nothing seems to change and there are rarely urgent needs to address. In a collaboration model, the leader maintains clear decision-making authority. This is key to ensuring that the leader can always move the team forward toward common goals despite differences in opinion.

This is a heavy list of things to do in order to adopt a more collaborative leadership model successfully. The last one may be especially difficult to accept and implement. In my career in theological libraries and small organizations with a faith-based or social justice focus, consensus-seeking is a go-to method to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and valued. When dealing with rapid change—like the many things that are contributing to our current volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world state—consensus-seeking can keep our organizations stuck in old patterns. And staying stuck in old patterns can lead to catastrophic failures during economically unstable times.

Collaboration offers us an opportunity to gather wisdom from around us while also standing firm in our leadership. In addition to the four things identified by Ibarra and Hansen, I would like to offer four skills to develop that help promote collaborative leadership.

1. Open communication. This is more than just transparency. Open communication is a commitment to being clear in your own communication as well as a commitment to active listening.

2. Set clear expectations. Setting and managing expectations in a collaborative model is key to making sure that everyone understands their role and feels empowered to participate. Setting healthy and reasonable expectations for yourself is also important.

3. Lead with confidence. Building your self-confidence as a leader is crucial to maintaining strong collaborative relationships with your team. This isn’t arrogance or ego; it is standing firm in who you are, knowing your biases and how to check them, and holding your leadership values in balance with the organization’s mission.

4. Invest in professional development. Not just professional development for yourself, but for every person on your team. Every person is a leader in some capacity, regardless of whether or not they have direct reports. It is important that we invest in developing leadership skills and traits for the whole team to deepen the impact of collaboration.

Engaging the virtue of sharing in your leadership isn’t about sharing all power and responsibility without limits. It is leading by collaboration.

Invitation to Collaboration

If you’re looking for ways to develop your personal leadership or professional leadership style, Fosgail offers several opportunities that might be of interest.

As an accredited executive coach, I have a few openings to work with folks one-to-one on leadership and work-related matters, including communication and conflict. If this is of interest, I encourage you to book a call for a 45-minute coaching chemistry session for us to get to know one another and see if coaching with me would be a good fit for you.

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