On co-leadership

So far, I have only talked about leading from above. Now we’re talking briefly about leading horizontally when you have co-leaders.

Before you begin leading with co-leaders, you must decide if there is a hierarchy or if they are co-equal leaders. If you are the ultimate leader and they are leaders who are also part of your team, then everything said until now applies.

But if you are co-equal, then the rules change slightly as you’ll now need to be deferential when you would not need to be deferential if you were the only leader. I recommend being overly deferential and that you avoid flexing. If you have chosen to co-lead, then your co-leaders and you get equal votes.

This will force you to articulate very clearly when you have a strong opinion on something and to choose your battles wisely. A very good way to get your way is to defer more often than not. 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.

You should ultimately view your leadership team as a single unit, especially outwardly. Your team should perceive that you and your co-leaders are in lock-step, even if you are not.

This is an application of “Privately correct, publicly praise” from above: in public, you are one cohesive group of co-leaders; in private, you might iron out the kinks and try to sync up.