The Joy of Shared Responsibility

Note: the cover image for this blog (also below) is the disturbing result of my Squarespace image search for “leader.’ More on that, perhaps, in a future blog.

Anyway…

One of the reasons I was so excited about starting at Global Greengrants Fund was that it’s a co-director role. After years of being in charge, I was tired of making decisions on my own. Leadership can be wonderful, but it can also be isolating and heavy. I was only willing to step back into a leadership role if I could share the responsibility and influence by closely collaborating with a thought partner. 

Co-leadership offers up a compelling antidote to the patriarchal, hierarchical version of one person running things through their unimpeachable brilliance and prowess. As this Forbes article puts it, 

Many of the problems we’re facing have no precedent. We need teams of talented leaders and co-leaders working together to unravel the complexities, find new ways of doing things and get complicated stuff done…[but] co-leadership asks more of leaders than the “command and control” style did. You must learn to share power and privilege, as well as breakdown and failure. It’s the whole package as far as learning and development goes.

Put another way,

Sharing power is complex. But that complexity can lead to stronger, happier, and more impactful organisations and communities. Fused with a feminist agenda, it can be a practice of collective liberation.

I’m excited about the possibility of co-leadership not only to keep burnout at bay, but to bring more diverse views and solutions and greater creativity and innovation to the table - not just for me, but for anyone willing to experiment with it.

At the same time, I’m hesitant to fully expound on my own experience, precisely because there is someone (a wonderful someone) on the other side of it. It feels a bit like blogging about my marriage without Chad having a say. Unfair, and an incomplete picture anyway. So I’ve decided to share some articles and resources on the benefits, and challenges, of this approach, which seems to be gaining traction in the mainstream NGO world.

Chantal PasquarelloComment