Can Shared Leadership Practices Lift HRs Performance?

Research, practitioner experience support distributing leadership load When Karie Willyerd was named chief learning officer at technology company Sun Microsystems, one of her first tasks was to reorganize a Sun-learning function that had 12 disparate units. Rather than flexing her new power and choosing the new structure unilaterally, Willyerd asked key stakeholders from those dozen areas to serve on a project team to explore how Sun might reinvent learning. It was risky, because what if the team comes up with answers I dont like? said Willyerd, now vice president for learning and social adoption at SuccessFactors. The team, which solicited input from Willyerd, developed a solution for how Sun could restructure the learning group. There was another benefitsince learning managers had a voice in shaping the process, they became evangelists for the new structure. This helped speed up the structures acceptance. Willyerd practiced the concept of shared or participative leadership, a notion championed by leadership consultants, and one that has gained prevalence in the book Extraordinary Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results by Geoffrey Bellman and Kathleen Ryan (2009). The two consultants spent three years studying more than 60 self-declared great groups to determine the reason for their success. One distinguishing characteristic of these groups was the widespread use of shared leadership practices. In the context of globalization, the subject is equally relevant to Indian companies today. While they have gained much prominence, thanks to joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, Indian companies are also grappling with people-related issues. As Spencer Stuarts (a global executive search firm) report on the round table discussion on HR Leadership in India, highlighted, The critical step is successfully creating a cultural migration, bringing together the best of both worlds and then integrating the value chain of business. And to achieve this, any organization would require more than one boss. And that is exactly what Pitney Bowes India, a provider of integrated mail and document management systems, services and solutions seems to be doing. With over 20 offices spread across the country, the company has human resource business partners involved in the business rather than conducting mere transaction jobs. Said Manan Chaturvedi, one of the four business partners, We work with the business heads to achieve targets, rather than fulfill the role of a transactions department. This also means we know what kind of training to plan for employees and dont wait to be told what to do. The concept of business partners rather than human resource managers has worked very well for the company because, as the designation suggests, the role is more proactive. We sit in during client meetings, work with the team and understand the business and what it takes to succeed, Chaturvedi said, adding, In fact, as business partners we do not do an exit analysis to understand why a person is leaving the company, we already know why he might leave and preempt such situations. Another advantage of being partners and not managers, Chaturvedi said, is that, We dont need to be told what kind of training employees require; we already know what we need to organize. In his book, Bellman said, Designated leaders in these groups see to it that their teams are always led but dont always feel the need to lead themselves. They ask a lot of questions, make statements that cause groups to focus on their key purpose and regularly tap into the expertise that surrounds them to help make decisions. In observing these groups, Bellman said, leadership often looked like a Ping-Pong ball bouncing from one team member

to another. The result was a sense of shared accountability for solving problems among team members, not simply looking to a leader-by-title for answers. In an article published in the Mint titled 5 prejudices a boss should guard against the author quotes Deepak Kaistha, director of Planman Consulting, Bosses should refrain from saying I dont have anyone on my team I can delegate to. As the manager of a group of any size, its your job to create a team to which you can delegate. So work to build your teams confidence and experience. Courage Required Shared leadership practices entail taking risks, setting aside ego and ceding some hard-earned control. The Extraordinary Groups research found that such leadership styles yield ample benefits in the form of more engagement and commitment among work groups, by: more people volunteering to lead projects teaching peers or researching issues spurring more innovation tapping of individual expertise that might otherwise go unused We found a strong connection between shared leadership and people in these extraordinary groups being fully engaged, bringing their best selves to the workplace [and having] a willingness to work long hours and take initiative, said Ryan. It is a leadership style well suited for todays global economy, other leadership experts said. The complexity and variety of decisions that need to be made often are beyond the capabilities of one human resource executive, no matter how experienced. Shared or distributed leadership has always been around. We always discuss ideas and figure out what we need to focus on and how to go about doing it. It is not possible for one person to know or do everything, said Pradeep Mukherjee, an organization and leadership effectiveness consultant with over 26 years experience in human resource management. Mukherjee, however, cautioned that while leadership can be shared, accountability cannot: In the end, the boss is accountable for him team, he said. Key tasks that Ryan said designated leaders should hold on to include: Creating an inspiring purpose for their groups Hiring, and when necessary, firing staff Surfacing sensitive issues Addressing conflict immediately Working to protect teams from organizational politics HR Leaders Are Believers Another proponent of shared leadership is Ajit Menon, Executive Director, Organisation Development, Mudra, Indias leading integrated marketing communications group. At Mudra we do not call ourselves HR. We call ourselves OD - Organization Development. OD comprises of four sections:

1. People Development Working towards career progression, succession planning, star program, 360 degree reflect T&D and the regular HR work. 2. Infrastructure Development Working towards better facility management, administration, projects, work environment, travel, etc. 3. Technology Development Working towards bringing technology into our daily professional lives. 4. Organization Structure Development working towards making the organisation leaner, tougher and profitable as we grow. Each OD person has to be fully involved in all four aspects. Hence, they go through rigorous training in all four areas and have to deliver on all these areas. The philosophy at Mudra is that employees should be able to concentrate on what they have been acquired for. The rest is taken care of by the OD team, said Menon. In such a situation the OD team has to be a highly motivated, empowered and fearless team. They are then allowed to take their decisions. We have freedom to fail as one of our values, hence, the OD team does not shy away from taking decisions. This has helped the team to move away from being a support department to becoming a strategic business partner to the business heads. Each business head as an OD partner and they drive the business together, Menon explained. As for his job, it is to educate and empower the team. I also keep an eye on the team else they will feel abdicated. My job is also to proactively educate them on what the future of the company and its businesses are as I sit at the board and am aware of these. This helps them counsel, advice and mentor the business heads as well. In a time when HR leaders have to manage across more cultures, understand emerging technologies and master more vexing business issues, shared leadership seems to hold growing appeal. As Bhanu Bhatia, Chief Manager, Human Resources at Estel Technologies said, When responsibilities are shared, fewer issues are escalated, and bosses can focus on broader issues. Willyerd couldnt be more correct when he said, In an increasingly complex business world, we are going to have to start looking at different ways of leading, and participative management is one viable solution for that.