Don’t take the lead…share the lead: Surprising leadership lessons from big time college sports

Abstract

This article is about strong leadership in fast-paced competitive contexts. Yet we will not be focused on the classic idea of dynamic influence resulting from ‘‘taking the lead.’’ Rather, here we are concerned with the cutting edge leadership idea of ‘‘sharing the lead.’’ While shared leadership has especially been studied and written about in work organizations, much can be learned and gained from applying and studying shared leadership on sports teams. In fact, one of the more interesting arenas for studying leadership in general and shared leadership more specifically is big-time college sports. Success and career sustainability of head coaches depends on the quality of the assistants on their coaching staff and the contributions they make to the overall coaching team. As with so many leadership contexts this area is ripe with paradox. Sometimes the most unlikely developments emerge that offer rich lessons about dramatic factors influencing leadership sustainability. Three of the most fascinating and, for two of them controversial, team coaches in history are Tom Osborne, Bobby Knight, and Joe Paterno. Not only did they achieve unprecedented competitive success, but also they demonstrated a complex blend of different types of leadership that distinguished them from other more typical top-down athletic coaches. In particular, they learned how to share leadership with those below them in order to develop others’ leadership skills. This can work well when those various leaders use their influence for ethical ends. Unfortunately, without proper precautions, the seemingly immensely positive outcomes can go terribly astray. In fact, shared leadership, as with any kind of leadership that is not practiced wisely and based on a solid ethical foundation of integrity, can be vulnerable to very destructive consequences.