The Power of Shared Leadership in Business

CJ Liu interviews Kevin Hancock on his book: “The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey Into the Business of Shared Leadership.”

Part 1: Leadership During Crises

Kevin is the CEO of a Hancock Lumber company established in 1848. During 2012 Kevin lost his voice from spasmodic dysphonia. As a result of losing his ability to speak, he learned to ask a few questions and to listen more. Part of Kevin’s healing journey over the last decade has been 25 visits to the Lakota people at Pine Ridge. It is through these visits that Kevin developed a leadership philosophy built on his experiences without his voice. He learned about distributive power, where everyone in a company has a voice and the power to lead. CJ asked Kevin how he has lead through crises. Kevin explains that a crises reveals culture. During COVID, Kevin’s lumber company is considered an essential industry. Kevin shares how the employees decided whether to work, when, how, and what was required for them to be safe and exercise caution.

Part 2: 7th Power: Owning Our Power

Kevin explains that power does not live outside of us, but within us. It’s through losing his own voice through a condition called spasmodic dysphonia and learning about Lakota spirituality that Kevin learned to find the power within himself. The medicine wheel is a sacred symbol that embodies the four cardinal directions. It also includes Father Sky, Mother Earth, and the center, which is our individual power (called the 7th power).

Kevin’s leadership style has been about creating a culture of safety where everyone feels able to be their authentic self. The goal is for everyone to feel trusted, respected, and to heal what needs to change. CJ shares that this is becoming the prevalent management style, but that not everyone can easily move to this model. Employees who have been lead through an authoritative command-control style are used to having the leader be solely responsible for the organization. While there is safety in that model, employees give up their power and shared responsibility of outcomes.

Part 3: The Power of Listening

Kevin’s model of leadership is based on the 7th power and tapping each person’s authentic power. When CJ asks how he brings forward someone’s authentic power, Kevin explains that it’s all about asking questions. How are you going to do x? What is the purpose of doing x? It’s really not as much about the questions asked as much as it is about listening, alignment, dialogue, and supporting one’s decision. The common objections with this model is the timeliness of decisions and immediacy for timeliness in certain situations (e.g.- building consensus while in ER room with dying patient).

Kevin explains that there are certain contexts where this command-control leadership makes sense, but even in these situations there is a foundation of trust built from the practice of sharing power. Even though Kevin hears the objections for decisions taking longer time, he finds that overall there is more sustained health in the future when he has surrendered control, and allows his employees to plan together. Kevin explains that the authoritative model is based on the belief that power is finite and must be contained by a few. The 7th power is based on the belief that power is infinite.

Part 4: Meaning = Corporate Mission

Kevin’s leadership style is based upon the idea of shared leadership. However, it’s more than just building practices that support shared leadership and creating a culture. At Hancock Lumber, their mission has changed. The company’s mission is now focused on creating a valuable and meaningful place for people to work. His metrics are less about profits and more about engagement and the well being of individuals. He wants to facilitate bringing about someone’s higher calling. While all this may sound good in practice, CJ asks about the bottom line at Hancock Lumber. Kevin shares that in the last decade that he’s outperformed the business results over the last 165 years they’ve been in business.

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