Essay On Shared Leadership

Leadership changes depending on the groups that you are involved in. In traditional military chain of commands, the orders come from top down and that is the way things go because that is the most efficient way to do military business. Colonel Mark Strong writes that “Establishing and maintaining effective leadership and its inherent authority in small units is also one of the most difficult and under-appreciated leadership challenges for both the leader and the led”(Strong 1). However, it is often seen in groups like the Navy SEALS that leadership takes on a different role in which the amount of leadership depends on what the person has done instead of solely on what he wears on his collar. As a young junior officer being commissioned into a small elite group like the SEALS or EOD, you …show more content…
Shared leadership is very effective when your followers respect you and it takes time to build that respect but you must be able to show that you are capable of doing the job at hand. Another essential part of shared leadership is trusting in your followers to making the right decision even if you are not there. This may be the hardest part of shared leadership is when the junior officer is not around, the enlisted personal being able to function to a high degree of success. This comes from proper training and teaching. Finally, if the junior officer is reliable, this only adds to the ability of the team to function collaterally. Shared leadership is one of the hardest things to implement in the military especially if you are a junior officer but for small groups it is almost necessary in order for the survival of the group. Each member must be able to operate at a high degree of success no matter who is leading