The pros and cons of co-leadership

Co-leadership models are becoming increasingly popular in the charity sector, with two or more people sharing leadership responsibilities in the same job role. I’ve recently been reflecting on the benefits and challenges of a co-leadership model as more of my clients are considering how co-leadership can serve their organisation. With candidates also starting the conversation, I thought it was time to reflect on its pros and cons.

There’s no doubt that co-leadership has been gaining traction. We’ve seen this in the co-chair models we’ve recently appointed for several clients, but what about the co-CEO or co-executive model?

It presents a compelling alternative to traditional single-leader structures, offering advantages such as enhanced decision-making, diverse perspectives, greater scope for innovation, and shared responsibilities. However, there are challenges, including barriers to adoption — many boards who oversee this recruitment prefer full-time leaders — the potential for conflict, dilution of authority, confusion, inconsistency, and delays.

There is also a perceived or accepted wisdom that power-sharing never works.

But it often does work. Under the right circumstances, it can be both liberating and powerful.

As the job of running organisations becomes more complex and multi-faceted and the scope of responsibilities grows, the co-CEO model deserves a closer look.