Should Bosses Give Up More Of Their Power?

"The world of business is short on examples of big bosses deciding to split power. But with companies increasingly operating in different countries with different laws, cultures and demands, there are some who believe it's time" to do just that, writes BBC's Nastaran Tavakoli-Far.

BBC's CEO Guru looked at a handful of companies where the top boss shares power in global companies and the results of the unusual arrangement. It's an approach that can, some say, aid massive multinationals. Among the reasons it's a good idea to share power: Walter Robb, Co-CEO of Whole Foods, explains that by distributing management across regions, you also distribute decision-making and responsibilities to the places where business is actually being done--rather than running every decision up the flagpole to a distant chief executive sitting thousands of miles away and staring into a completely different daily reality.

GE's Jeffrey Immelt says that as firms move more and more into the developing world, distant CEOs simply can't feel the on-the-ground ethos of doing business.

Of course, it's difficult to push off critical decisions to others, especially when a CEO can find his job on the line if things don't go right for a quarter or two. It's hard for most any manager to delegate. As Eric Barton wrote in his Leader Board column not long ago, that's partly because true delegation requires a significant level of trust. Otherwise, delegating is really just for show--shoving off the undesirable stuff to an underling or even a near-equal and keeping the truly consequential work for yourself.

"A master delegator teaches others to do tasks well. The trick is to stop giving in to that need to accomplish things yourself. Yes, you have to be ready to offer instruction or fix things when they go south. But being a coach, and not a slugger, is what you signed up for when you took that promotion," Barton wrote (along with some funny stories of truly bad delegation--and a lesson that golfers can teach businesspeople about doing it right.)

That may be true at a middle or even semi-senior management level, but is it really that easy to do as a CEO? It seems one would have to have a healthy check on his or her ego to really make go of it. I don't have that much power and I find it hard to delegate, simply because it's hard to let go of my own ideas and watch someone else nurture them and coax them through to reality.

Robb, Whole Foods co-CEO says the keys to successfully sharing the lead with co-CEO John Mackey boil down to a few simple elements:

• They get along
  
• They share a vision
  
• They share similar professional values
  
• They are both equally experienced (even if the specifics are different)
  

"Some folks are challenged by the fact that there's two leaders," Robb told CEO Guru. "They think, 'Who's in charge?' The answer is we're both in charge."

You can see what CEOs like Robb have to say in, "Why global bosses should give away some power."

Readers, what do you think? Is power-sharing really the future for multinational companies--or even just your own office? Can more hard-charging Type A managers and CEOs really cede power to someone else?

(Photo: Thinkstock)