Co-lead strategically

Before you begin co-leading, you should decide whether there is a hierarchy or whether all leaders are co-equal. If you are the ultimate leader and they are leaders who are also part of your team, then lead your co-leaders as you would other team members.

But if you are co-equal, meaning that you and your co-leaders will generally have equal say, then the approach changes slightly. You’ll need to operate in a more collaborative way and defer more frequently than you would if you were the only leader.

For individual leadership decisions, choose your battles wisely.

You will find that you don’t have a strong opinion on many decisions. On those decisions, you should just defer to your co-leaders.

Occasionally, you will have a strong opinion on a decision, and that is the time to cash in on the social capital you’ve accumulated by being deferential most of the time. If you almost always defer to your co-leaders, then when you suddenly have a strong opinion and do not immediately defer, that will carry a lot of weight.

This is another application of “Privately correct, publicly praise”: Publicly, you are one cohesive group of co-leaders; privately, you are debating and syncing.

You should ultimately portray your leadership team as a single unit so that your team perceives you and your co-leaders to be in lockstep, even if you are not.