Taking Turns to Lead

Principles For Shared Leadership

Let's be honest: the old playbook for leadership is no longer relevant.

You know the one, where leaders are supposed to have all the answers, where power flows in one direction, where "being professional" means leaving your humanity at the door. If you're feeling exhausted by trying to fit into that mould, you're not alone. And here's the kicker: the latest research proves it. The future of leadership isn't about being the smartest person in the room. It's about creating rooms where everyone can be smart together.

So in this blog, I want to share with you the Collaborative Leadership principles we follow.

You follow me, then I follow you

One of our most transformative practices at The Hum is beautifully simple: we take turns leading.

When it's my turn to facilitate the strategy session, you follow me. When it's your turn to guide us through conflict resolution, I follow you. When someone else's technical expertise is what we need, we all follow them. No permanent pedestals. No fixed hierarchies.

This isn't chaos, it's choreography. Like musicians in a jazz ensemble, we each step forward when our strengths are needed, then step back to support others when it's their moment to shine. It's about building resilient teams where anyone can step in to lead when necessary, leaning on each other's strengths exactly when they're needed most.

Studies show that when leadership is shared, teams and organizations consistently perform better across industries, cultures, and contexts. In fact, shared leadership often predicts success more reliably than traditional top-down leadership.

The adult-to-adult principle

Shared leadership only works when we fundamentally shift how we see each other. We call this adult-to-adult leadership. Treating each other as equals.

Although, this doesn't mean pretending everyone has the same skills or capabilities right now (that would be naive). Some people have deep expertise in certain areas. Some are still developing their sense of agency. Others are finding their voice.

The shift is this: we recognise that everyone is equally capable of growth, equally worthy of autonomy, and equally responsible for what we're creating together. We don't just treat people as equals, we actively support each other to grow into our full potential.

When someone lacks a skill, we don't write them off. We mentor them. When someone struggles with autonomy we don't take over, we create scaffolding for them to practice. When someone's confidence wobbles we don't rescue them, we stand beside them until they find their feet.

This is what transforms a group of individuals into a genuine team: knowing that everyone is committed not just to the work, but to each other's development.

The neuroscience of leading together

Here's something that might surprise you: one of the most important leadership skills isn't strategic thinking or communication. It's knowing how to regulate your own nervous system.

Why? Because calm is contagious (so is panic). Neuroscience shows us that we're constantly co-regulating with each other. Specially true for people with formal and informal leadership, or more social capital in a group. So, when someone that holds leadership walks into a room stressed and dis-regulated, everyone's nervous system responds. Creativity shuts down, our vision actually narrows looking for threats. 

But when they show up grounded and present (even in the midst of chaos) they create space for everyone else to access their best thinking. Because, when we're relaxed and regulated, we're neurologically more open to possibilities, our vision widens, our creativity increases, and we are more able to hold complexity. 

This is why in collaborative leadership, your inner state can be a gift you give to your team. Your groundedness becomes the container that helps everyone else regulate and access their collective intelligence.

Creating leadership pipelines, not bottlenecks

Traditional organisations create bottlenecks. One person holds the knowledge. One person makes the decisions. One person becomes indispensable (and exhausted).

We practice something radically different: successional leadership. As we grow into new challenges, we actively mentor others to take on what we're outgrowing. It's not delegation, it's development.

This aligns with what researchers like Robert Kegan call "deliberately developmental organisations", places where personal growth isn't separate from work, but woven into how we operate. When I'm ready to take on strategic planning, I don't just hand off my project management tasks. I mentor someone through them, sharing not just the what but the why and the how.

We're not just passing batons; we're growing the next generation of leaders. Every role transition becomes a developmental opportunity for both people involved.

Leaderfull (not leaderless) 

Ok, let's address a paradox that every collaborative team faces: sometimes, in our eagerness to be non-hierarchical, nobody wants to step up and lead. The group spirals in endless discussion. Decisions don't get made. Uncertainty builds. People get frustrated.

This is called ‘the leadership vacuum’, and it's just as problematic as having too much hierarchy.

The solution isn't to give up on shared leadership. It's to get more sophisticated about it. Someone needs to step in not to dominate, but to hold space for the group to find clarity. To facilitate alignment. To help the team move from swirling to deciding.

This is where shared leadership gets interesting: leadership becomes a role we consciously pick up and put down, not an identity we defend.

Recent research from University of Delaware reveals what we've learned through experience: self-managed teams work brilliantly when goals are aligned, but can struggle without clear facilitation when perspectives diverge. 

The key is having people who can recognise when the group needs structure and step in to provide it, then step back once alignment is found. Instead of pretending power doesn't exist, we make it visible and fluid. We shift from a "ladder of authority" to a "ladder of responsibility." 

It's not about being perfect, it's about being real

The organisations thriving in 2025 aren't the ones with perfect systems. They're the ones where people can show up as humans. Where mistakes become learning. Where vulnerability becomes strength. Where leadership emerges from unexpected places.

This isn't just nice-to-have anymore. With more workers depending on collaborative technology, with complexity increasing exponentially, with the old command-and-control structures creaking under pressure, shared leadership has become a crucial skill.

But more than that, it's a chance to create work that actually works. For everyone. Where your growth and the organisation's growth are the same conversation. Where taking turns to lead means everyone gets to shine.

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The skills for a new way of working

The truth is, most of us were never taught how to lead collaboratively. We learned to compete, not collaborate. We learned to hide our struggles, not share them skilfully. We learned to avoid conflict, not transform it into fuel for growth.

That's why intellectual understanding isn't enough. You need to practice. You need to feel it in your body. You need to experiment in a safe container with others who are on the same journey.

You need to learn how to:

• Build psychological safety without becoming everyone's parent

• Step back gracefully and support others to step in when their leadership strengths are what's needed

• Transform conflict from something that tears teams apart into something that makes them stronger

• Regulate your nervous system when everything around you is in chaos, to provide grounding for the team

• Facilitate a group through uncertainty without imposing your own agenda

Ready to lead differently?

If you're nodding along thinking "yes, but HOW?", I get it. Reading about collaborative leadership is one thing. Developing the embodied capacity to practice it is another entirely.

That's why we created our Emerging Leaders Training. Not to teach you the theory, but to give you the lived experience of shared leadership in action.

Five days in the hills outside Barcelona. A small group of people ready to experiment. Real challenges, real practice, real transformation. You'll work with your actual leadership challenges, get coached by people who've been in the trenches, and build a support network that lasts long after you leave.

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The Emerging Leaders Training runs January 12-17, 2026. We'd love to have you join us.