Experience of our first Shared Leadership Team

Shared Leadership: "We complement each other and the whole team can benefit from that." 

Part-time and a management position don't go together? Viktoria Liemke and Bettina Wocheslander from the People Function at Allianz Technology put this prejudice to rest. The solution: Shared Leadership - a leadership model in which two people share the leadership role on a part-time basis and are jointly responsible for managing a team. We spoke to the two colleagues and to their manager who made it all possible: Georg Brunner . 

Bettina and Viktoria, you two recently formed a shared leadership tandem. What does that look like in practice? 

Viktoria: Bettina and I are the first Shared Leadership Team in Allianz Technology based in the People Function from 1st June, and since then we have shared the position of Head of People Function Expert Team. This means that we are both responsible for managing the employees. 

Bettina: We are both part-time, I work 20 hours, Viktoria just over 30 hours per week. I had only worked briefly as a manager before my parental leave, Viktoria had not before. We started out together, so to speak. 

How did you find each other, and what is your tip for interested colleagues for finding a suitable tandem partner?

Bettina: In our specific case, it was like this: I passed the Leadership Assessment Center shortly before my parental leave and took over another team leader position in Georg's area. We built up the team together, but then I went on parental leave. When I came back after the year of parental leave, I was initially unsure what my chances were as a part-time employee for a leadership position. At that time, the position of Head of People Function Expert Team was still vacant, and fortunately Georg thought of me. 

Georg: So, in order to give Bettina a chance at this management position, I needed a partner for her, ideally from the area of labor law, and so Viktoria came on board; she is a lawyer and works in this area in our company. I knew both colleagues and had the feeling that this would be a good fit. Bettina and Viktoria then first took the opportunity to get to know each other and develop an impression of whether they could work well together. 

Viktoria: That's very important, there simply has to be chemistry. That may not work for every constellation, but Bettina and I quickly realized that we could work well together. We complement each other and the whole team can benefit from that.

What are the advantages of shared leadership for you?

Viktoria: This model is designed to give part-time employees the opportunity to develop. And in practice, we really experience many benefits. For example, we have different backgrounds in terms of education or professional experience, which sometimes gives us a different perspective on problems and possible solutions. For this reason, we can give broader feedback than a single person. In addition, together we work more than 100% of the time, which means that in the end we have more time for our task - added together - than a single manager. This gives us the opportunity to advance important, technical issues and to provide intensive support to employees where help is needed. Ultimately, it benefits the employees because our availability for the team is higher. 

Georg: More than 100% working hours are of course optimal in this case, but not a prerequisite. In addition, there is a certain need for coordination with this style of leadership, and as a result, overlap time between the two managers is necessary. Of course, this is not the case with a team led by just one person. 

How do you divide up the tasks? 

Viktoria: The Expert Teams are made up of the Legal (labor law), Care (well-being, occupational health and safety) and Ways of Working (WOW) Experts. So, thematically, we can separate them quite well: Bettina has a clear expertise in the area of Care, as she herself used to be an expert in the Care Team. That's why it makes sense for Bettina to take on the main responsibility here. Just like with WOW. On the one hand, there are overlaps with Care in terms of content. On the other hand, both are global topics with a similar approach. I focus on Legal, as Georg said, I'm a lawyer and I specialize in labor law. So, each of us has our focus with the respective experts in the team. 

Bettina: In the future, however, our plan is to become more familiar with each other's topics so that we can better represent each other. We want to be a good sparring partner for all employees in the team. Of course, shared leadership can look very different in other teams: In teams that have less heterogeneous tasks, it can be even easier to implement. It is important to me personally to find a good balance in the onboarding phase and also in the future coordination with Viktoria. I would like to know the important information, of course, but also not everything. That would not be feasible and not very efficient. Besides, it's not even necessary: We have a great team of experts who know exactly what's important and what needs to be done. 

To whom the Shared Leadership model would be interesting? 

Georg: The model appeals to managers and anyone who wants to become one. Shared Leadership is therefore interesting for every employee who wants to develop professionally, and no one has to be prevented from working part-time. 

At Allianz Technology, we are very happy to support colleagues who want to lead but do not want to or cannot work full time. 

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