Sibling leadership

Abstract

In our world today, with rare exceptions, we have become accustomed to a form of leadership in which we promote our leaders into isolated parental positions, relying on them to make decisions for us and clear up the mess when things go wrong. But expecting our leaders to behave as though they are above us will inevitably set up power dynamics which can stifle collaboration and diminish our creativity and independence.

In this paper I argue that if our leaders are encouraged to work alongside their teams as nominated and responsible siblings rather than overbearing parents, they will be better equipped to foster cooperative and respectful teamwork and deal more effectively and creatively with rivalry and competition.