EVOLUTIONARY CO-LEADERSHIP

New concepts and forms of leadership are emerging in a number of organizations and communities around the world, in response to the multiple crises we are facing and to the need for radical rethinking of our prevailing development model. They include shared, distributed, or collective leadership - called here co-leadership - that emphasizes interpersonal influence, dialogue, and mutuality, and considers leadership as a relational process rather than a position. Such leadership engages simultaneously in top-down, bottom-up, diagonal, and circular change processes. It also cuts across boundaries to generate open innovation that involves suppliers and customers as partners, or to address complex challenges of sustainable development by forming partnerships across companies, government and civil society.