Exploring Collective Leadership in Research Environments
February 21, 2025
By Alys Kay | Thrive: Inclusive Research Leadership Senior Researcher Developer
Leadership in research takes many forms—from formal hierarchies to distributed models that rely on collaboration rather than authority. In a recent Workshop on Collective Leadership, we explored how leadership emerges in collaborative research settings, particularly among research fellows navigating interdisciplinary work and shared responsibilities as early-career researchers.
For many research fellows, leadership is not about holding a formal title—it’s about facilitating collaborations, shaping research culture, and ensuring projects progress successfully. But this raises ongoing questions:
🔹 How does trust develop in interdisciplinary teams?
🔹 How do teams make decisions when authority is distributed?
🔹 How do researchers balance individual contributions with collective goals?
These questions reflect the evolving nature of leadership in research—where different models coexist and shape team dynamics.
The Workshop: A Hands-On Approach to Leadership
This interactive workshop provided a space to explore leadership as a flexible process rather than a fixed role. It was structured around three core elements:
✅ Real-World Case Studies – Fellows examined leadership dilemmas drawn from actual research collaborations, analysing decision-making, power dynamics, and trust-building strategies.
✅ Interactive Group Activities – Small teams tackled simulated leadership challenges, navigating uncertainty, allocating responsibilities, and making strategic choices collectively.
✅ Reflections & Applied Learning – Fellows reflected on their leadership styles, strengths, and strategies for implementing effective collaborative leadership approaches in their teams.
One particularly insightful exercise involved a live decision-making scenario, where teams responded to a realistic research project challenge. It highlighted how different individuals step into leadership roles based on their expertise, confidence, or ability to facilitate discussions.
“It was eye-opening to see how leadership can shift within a team based on the situation rather than being fixed to one person. This exercise helped me recognize how I can step into leadership in a way that plays to my strengths.”
Key Insights from the Workshop
1️⃣ Trust as an Evolving Process
Trust within research teams is shaped by transparency, communication, and shared expectations. We explored how to build trust through:
✔ Clearly defining roles and contributions from the outset.
✔ Creating open spaces for discussion without fear of judgment.
✔ Encouraging reciprocal mentorship across career stages.
“Building trust in interdisciplinary teams is different from a typical mentor-mentee relationship. It’s about ensuring that each person feels their expertise is valued, even when they come from vastly different disciplines.”
2️⃣ Leadership as a Flexible Concept
Leadership is not about position—it’s about contribution. The workshop illustrated this through:
✔ A dynamic leadership rotation activity, where individuals stepped into leadership as the task evolved.
✔ Group exercises exploring the strengths of directive vs. facilitative leadership.
✔ Practical strategies for balancing leadership with team autonomy.
“I’ve always assumed leadership meant taking control, but in this workshop, I realized that true leadership often means stepping back and making space for others to contribute.”
3️⃣ Navigating Power Dynamics in Research Teams
Power exists in all collaborative settings, but awareness and intentional strategies can prevent hierarchies from becoming barriers. Key takeaways included:
✔ Recognising implicit hierarchies and ensuring decision-making is inclusive.
✔ Negotiating authorship and contributions early in the process.
✔ Knowing when to step forward and when to create space for others to lead.
“We discussed how early-career researchers often get sidelined in authorship discussions. Having these conversations upfront—before a paper is drafted—makes a huge difference.”
Expanding Our Roles: Becoming Cultural Catalysts
An emerging theme was that leadership is not just about guiding research projects—it’s about shaping the culture of collaboration. Every researcher has the potential to be a cultural catalyst, fostering:
✔ Inclusive decision-making structures.
✔ Shared leadership models that empower all team members.
✔ Research environments that promote psychological safety and open communication.
“We talk a lot about leadership in terms of titles, but what if we started thinking of leadership as an ecosystem we all contribute to?”
By adopting this mindset, researchers can transform their workplaces into spaces where leadership is distributed, shared, and adaptive.
Impact & Takeaways: Why This Workshop Was Effective
Participants left with concrete tools for applying collective leadership in their research environments, including:
🔹 Personal leadership frameworks to help identify when and how to step into leadership. 🔹 A deeper understanding of how to build and sustain trust in interdisciplinary teams.
🔹Strategies for fair and transparent decision-making that reduce tension and foster collaboration.
“Before this workshop, I struggled with how to assert myself in leadership spaces without feeling like I was overstepping. Now, I feel equipped with strategies that let me lead collaboratively and effectively.”
🔄 Rethinking Leadership in Research
From my experience leading these discussions, it’s clear that research culture thrives when leadership is seen as an adaptive, shared responsibility. These conversations align with a growing movement in higher education:
Institutions that embrace collective leadership will foster stronger, more innovative teams.
Shared leadership roles create more inclusive and effective research environments.
Researchers at all career stages can play an active role in shaping research culture.
By fostering trust, distributing leadership, and engaging in dialogue about power dynamics, we can create stronger, more adaptive research collaborations.
💬 Continuing the Conversation
💡 How do you experience leadership in research settings? 💡 Have you encountered challenges in leading without formal authority?
This is an ongoing discussion with no single solution, and insights from different research environments will only enrich our understanding.
📌 Note: To protect participant identities, the quotes in this post are synthesised from key discussion points to maintain anonymity while preserving the integrity of the insights.