For quite some time now, we — more precisely, Thomas, Sonja, Christina, Andreas, and Randolf — have been developing a CollActive Leadership Program designed to empower people in organizations to apply their strengths appropriately to the situation and to take the lead — based on their expertise, experience, and passion — wherever they can make a difference and help move the company forward.
The foundation for this lies in a management and research discipline known as shared leadership, which has been extensively studied but has so far lacked a practical, application-oriented approach. This gap has now been closed by Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilhelm and Randolf Jessl. In May, their 300-page book titled “Shared Leadership: More Engagement and Better Results through Distributed Leadership” was published by Haufe.
In four chapters, Thomas and Randolf lay out the conceptual foundations and explore in concrete and practice-oriented ways the skills, methods, tools, and mindsets necessary to make reciprocal leading and following possible in organizations. These also form the teaching and training material in seminars led by Randolf — both as part of Haufe Academy’s open program and under the title “Leadership Instead of Leaders” within the CAS Strategic HR Leadership program at the Executive School of the University of St. Gallen. In addition, they flow into the above-mentioned transformation program of the Auctority Leadership Group, titled “CollActive Leadership.”
Table of Contents of the Book
Chapter 1) Introduction: When Everyone Leads and Everyone Follows
- A Course Correction in Leadership: The Example of the Nuclear Submarine Santa Fe
- Leadership as a One-Man Show: The Great Illusion
- Leading and Following as a Process: A Calm, Pragmatic Approach
- Trends that Change How We Lead and Follow
- What Matters in Leading and Following
- The Coexistence of Formal and Informal Leadership
- Distinguishing Leadership from Management
- Leading in the Tension Between Power, Authority, and Influence
- What Is Influence?
- What Is Authority?
- The Role of Trust and Reputation
- The Big Picture: The Engine of Leading and Following
- “Reverse Influence” and the Role of Followers
- Authority as a Better Alternative to Power: The End of the One-Man Show
- Sharing Leadership: Opportunities and Limits of Shared Leadership
- Definitions and Variants of Shared Leadership
- How Common Is Shared Leadership?
- Developing and Introducing Shared Leadership
- Which Leadership Tasks Can Be Shared?
- The Roles of Formal Leaders, Informal Leaders, and Followers
- Enabling Conditions and Proven Effects of Shared Leadership
- Where Shared Leadership Reaches Its Limits
- Takeaways
Chapter 2) Shared Leadership in Practice: Methods, Skills, and Tools
- Success Factors for Shared Leadership
- The Trust Space: Courtesy, Reliability, and Care
- Level 1: Courtesy and Kindness
- Level 2: Reliability
- Level 3: Openness and Care
- Communication – Part 1: The Good Dialogue
- Smart Questions as Pacemakers
- The Great Deceleration: Active Listening
- Lighthearted Conversations: Small Talk
- Deep Talk: The WIDL Conversation
- The Performance Space: Customer, Goals, and the Bigger Picture
- Customer, Purpose, Strategy
- Agile Goals: The Power of OKRs
- Communication – Part 2: Convincing Performance
- Persuading, Being Persuaded, Inspiring
- Collegial Feedback and Climate Conversations
- The Competence Space: Strengths, Self-Development, and Resilience
- How to Foster Team Strengths to Advance Shared Leadership
- How Everyone Can Develop Their Personal Leadership Potential
- How to Build Emotional Robustness and Resilience
- Communication – Part 3: A Solution-Oriented Coaching Mindset
- Peer-to-Peer Coaching
- The Shared Leadership Conference
- Resolving Conflicts in the Shared Leadership Model
- The Decision Space: Deciding, Taking Responsibility, Acting
- Deciding in Research Mode
- The Logic of Decision-Making
- The Sociocratic Decision Model
- Avoiding Decision-Making Pitfalls Through Shared Leadership
- Acting and Taking Responsibility
- Communication – Part 4: Decisiveness in Teams
- Leading Purposeful Meetings
- Shared Leadership in Rational Dialogue
- Takeaways
Chapter 3) Living Shared Leadership in Organizations
- Case Study: Greaterthan – The Power of Initiative
- Case Study: Viisi – The Primus Inter Pares
- Case Study: Atruvia – The Coexistence of Tribe and People Lead
- Case Study: cosee – The Magic of Social Density
- Case Study: SAP – The Art of Dual Leadership
- Case Study: Anonymous AG – How to Destroy Shared Leadership
Chapter 4) Tools & Inspiration on Shared Leadership
- Helpful Tools & Training Programs
- Inspiring Monographs
- Relevant Journal Articles
- Practical Guides
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
You can purchase the book in bookstores or on all major online platforms – for example on the Haufe store. It’s in german only.
