Shared Leadership: When one plus one equals three

Topsharing remains a niche in the economy, but is gaining relevance due to the shortage of skilled labor. Two companies demonstrate how shared leadership creates added value through broader competencies, despite the increased coordination effort.

Shared Leadership: When One Plus One Equals Three

The concept of topsharing, in which two executives share a management position, remains a niche dynamic in the German economy, but is gaining relevance in light of the shortage of skilled workers and changing demands for work-life balance. While shared leadership positions are still the exception in many companies, current practical reports show that although the model requires increased coordination, it can generate significant added value. Two companies are currently illustrating how this form of collaborative leadership works in operational reality and what strategic advantages it offers.

In classic organizational structures, the principle of single-line reporting is often considered sacrosanct to guarantee clear responsibilities and fast decision-making paths. Topsharing breaks with this tradition. Critics frequently cite the additional time required for the necessary synchronization between the two leaders. Indeed, experience shows that efficiency in a tandem is initially burdened by higher communication efforts. However, this is offset by the expansion of the competence spectrum in a single position. When two personalities with different professional focuses and backgrounds fill one position, it often leads to higher-quality decisions and a more resilient management level.

Efficiency Increase through Complementarity

For academic management education and MBA prospects, this trend offers a new perspective on curricula. Modern MBA programs are increasingly responding to the demand for soft skills such as cooperation, ambidexterity, and mediative communication, which are essential for the success of shared leadership. While studies were previously primarily geared towards training the solitary decision-maker, team dynamics are now moving into the focus of management teaching. Anyone aspiring to a Master's degree today must prepare for the fact that leadership is increasingly understood as a shared resource, based less on status than on collective goal achievement.

The implementation of topsharing requires high institutional maturity from the company. It is not enough to place two qualified people in one position; rather, IT systems, reporting lines, and target agreements must be flexibly adapted. Reports from companies show that the psychological component is particularly decisive: trust and the absence of internal competitive thinking are the basic prerequisites for one plus one to actually equal three in the end. The added value arises from mutual representation, the avoidance of burnout scenarios, and the continuous presence of a leadership perspective, even when one person is absent.