With the passage of time, many changes are taking place in internal business settings. Every individual is moulding himself to be an efficient and effective leader. The organizations also look forward to such leaders who can easily mould and share the responsibilities, vision, goals and mission of the organization for building great bonds and ensuring growth. In this, shared leadership plays a prominent role in building relationships and effective work environment. It also creates positive work culture in the organizations. This article explains a shift from classical leadership to shared leadership concept. It gives different insights into shared leadership and recounts new developments taking place in organizations with regard to shared leadership.

Very often managers deem that in the fast changing business scenario setting single-handed task accomplishment is becoming extremely difficult. The work also involves complexity; even response time is very less. In such circumstances, it is often desirable to set a group of knowledge workers to complete the task with perfection and punctuality. To remain competitive, organizations should have the right blend of expertise, skill, knowledge and efficiency. The group should act with flexibility and cohesion. When we look at the teams in the organizations, we observe two main components in them; leader and its members. Keeping in view the changing work environments, are our traditional leadership styles applicable, or do they require some rethinking and revamping?

The word `leader' is as old as socialization. Days have gone where leaders were war heroes who were charming, alluring, fascinating - in short charismatic. They created the troop of followers by means of their charm and grace. They were prophetic and the searchlight of attention. The charismatic leader used to gather followers by dint of personality and charm, rather than any form of external power or authority. Subsequently came the transformational leaders, like Hitler. A person with vision and passion who could achieve great things. Their way of getting things done was by injecting enthusiasm and energy. After that people-oriented leaders like Mahatma Gandhi took responsibility of the followers and had responsibility towards society and the disadvantaged. People who want to help others best do this by leading them. Now is the era of `Quiet' leaders, the leader who combines professional will with personal humility like, Infosys's Narayan Murthy.

The standpoint that an individual who has the experience, knowledge, appeal, visualization, decision-making ability, interpersonal skills, respect, standing, role (position), etc., will lead. Fairly, this brings about the belief that a single individual with enormous leadership abilities who is the recognized leader can lead to a successful future, but the need of the hour is individuals, who are group members, to take on the responsibility for leadership. And also the levels of high expectations, performance-oriented jobs, cultural diversities, and cross-functional teams are some of the compelling reasons that influence the shift from traditional leadership to shared leadership. `Shared Leadership' is an act of sharing responsibility, depending upon the complexity of the situation. A small word can be co-leadership having horizontal movement with the ultimate goal being proving successful.

Global CEO Magazine, Shared Leadership, Organizational Transformation, Leadership Styles, Narayan Murthy, Infosys's, Organizational Culture, World Business Markets, Corporate Culture, Decision-Making Processes, Democratic Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Strategic Leadership, Supply Chain Management.