Shared leadership can help address the pending leadership gap by making leadership positions more attractive. Many younger leaders want and need to try different ways of organizing the people and the work in their organizations. This approach will help decrease the burnout in top jobs that makes leaders less effective or forces them out the door while they still have much to contribute. Shared leadership models make “lower-level” jobs more interesting, thereby reducing turnover. Participating in decision-making, contributing to strategy design and bearing responsibility for results are key learning experiences and requirements for all leaders. Allowing a high percentage of nonprofit staff to learn those skills on the job seems like an ideal way to build a new generation of leaders.

To be clear, this is not just an argument for increased egalitarianism or parity in the workplace. More centrally, this is an argument for organizational sustainability and excellence in our field. Nonprofit professionals continuously demonstrate their commitment to their work. They do so particularly in times like these when, because of the economic recession, they are working for salaries reduced from levels already below those of their corporate sector counterparts. Their commitment to the organizations they work for is grounded in the pull of the mission, the impact on clients and the bond with their colleagues. Imagine the potential that can be unlocked if leaders increase their level of satisfaction with the way their organizations run, and the extent to which nonprofit staff are included in shaping their work.

Indeed, the most successful organizations are “learning organizations,” where smart people at all pay grades own the work, contribute actively to decision-making and develop strategy: in essence, they are able to lead. As Spillane explains, the success found at the school where he worked was due not only to one brilliant “hero” leader, but to the interconnected efforts of the school’s staff, who each individually held a great deal of ownership over his or her work (Spillane 2006, 31).

With the current economic downturn causing many organizations to shed needed employees, it is imperative that we find new ways to unlock the potential to achieve of those who remain on staff. Nonprofits are increasingly being asked by funders to partner with other organizations. For these collaborations to be successful, staff at various levels need to exercise strong critical thinking and communication skills. Funders can contribute to this process of organizational evolution by keeping an open mind when faced with non-traditional models of leadership and resisting the urge to determine “Who’s really in charge?” The answer to that question may be different than it has been in the past, but with no less, and perhaps more, effective outcomes.

Fostering experimentation with shared leadership models is a sector-wide imperative. The benefits accrue not just for individual organizations, but the sector as a whole. Younger professionals are much more likely to switch jobs, sectors and even careers in their lifetime than those from previous generations. Cultivating the skills that make them contributing team members and leaders in their own right will serve them and the industry no matter where they go.

The request being made here is that nonprofit leaders continue to push the envelope and explore how they cultivate leadership not just in their eventual successors, but in all staff. Moreover, the hope is that leaders take time to consider the way staffing teams are structured and experiment with alternative models. Additionally, current leaders who have worked in organizations with shared leadership models should share their experiences and hard-earned lessons with their colleagues.

The world and our lives are more interconnected than they ever have been in human history. There is very little that we do alone or by sheer force of will. We need input, buy-in and ongoing engagement from others if our ideas and institutions are to last beyond the efforts of individual leaders, and if we are to rise to the challenges our sector and our clients are facing.

Umi Howard is the Associate Director of Capacity Building at United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, where this past spring he led the pilot of the United Way Emerging Leaders Program.