Coalition leadership

Coalition leadership is made up of the top team of members that oversees a collective group or coalition. A coalition is an alliance for combined action, and the leadership of that alliance ensures the group's collective goals can be met. Coalitions can form in many fields including the business sector, government, health care, and education. Without effective leadership in place, coalitions would likely never get out of the planning stages.

Coalitions are often led by a team of leaders rather than just one person. This is because effective coalition leadership requires a broad range of qualities and skills that is typically not found in only one person. Since a wide range of skills is required for a coalition to be successful, these organizations can benefit from a leadership team made up of people from diverse backgrounds with varied experiences and skills.

Background

Coalitions can take on many forms and be found in a wide variety of sectors. Throughout history, coalitions have been established in fields including government and politics, as well as business coalitions, health care coalitions, and others. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition is a broad-based network of more than five hundred businesses and non-governmental organizations. It also includes national security and foreign policy experts, and leaders from businesses, faith-based groups, the military, and communities around the country. The coalition's leadership works alongside its members to support strategic investments to elevate development and diplomacy alongside defense to build a better world.

Coalition governments exist throughout the world. These consist of the cabinet of a parliamentary government in which multiple political parties cooperate, reducing the dominance of any one party within that coalition. The leaders of such coalitions, for example, work together to ensure the needs of each party are represented, while also ensuring the country and government as a whole run smoothly. Coalition governments are formed when no single political party has a majority of the members of that nation's parliament after a general election, a circumstance often referred to as a hung parliament.

In the United Kingdom, for example, after the general election in 2010, a coalition government was formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrat Party. This happened because the Conservative Party, though it won the most Parliament seats, did not secure a large enough majority to form a workable government. A third party, the Labour Party, had the second-largest number of seats in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats, with the third-largest number of Members of Parliament, negotiated with both parties, ultimately striking a deal with the Conservative Party. The leadership of this coalition government then worked together to ensure the collective goals of both parties could be met.

Overview

As in any leadership structure, coalition leadership requires attention to basic organizational functions, including communication, clarity of roles, decision-making, and others. The exact type of leadership a coalition employs will vary depending on the goals and size of the coalition. For example, a coalition made up of twenty organizations may want its leadership team to be made up of one member from each organization, or it could instead choose to elect a smaller leadership group or even one individual. Larger coalitions will often have a full-time, paid director and will operate like a traditional human service agency. Other smaller coalitions may have a leadership group made up entirely of volunteers.

Effective coalition leaders are open, task-oriented, and supportive of the coalition and its goals as a whole. Several types of leadership roles are commonly found in coalitions. They include the coalition's coordinator or facilitator, committee chairs, a secretary, and a treasurer. The members of a coalition leadership group should have good communication, negotiation, and networking skills. In addition, they should be able to set priorities, delegate tasks to coalition members, encourage shared leadership and information sharing, and understand how their community operates.

The facilitator of a coalition conducts the group's meetings, plans and implements activities, and provides general oversight to the coalition. The facilitator plays a key role in coalition leadership, as they are often tasked with bringing diverse ideas together and rallying members around the group's collective goal. Effective facilitators or coordinators are honest, transparent, positive, flexible, neutral, and believe in the coalition and its overall goals. They should also:

• be a good listener
• know when to facilitate and when to participate
• steer the group away from competitiveness
• provide feedback
• engage all members of the group
• keep meetings focused on the goals of the coalition
• create an environment of trust

Those in a coalition's leadership roles should be welcoming and inclusive. They need to set the tone for new members by welcoming them into the group and urging them to play an active role in the coalition. Coalition leaders also need strong conflict resolution skills. Conflict is common in coalitions as they bring together people and organizations from a diverse number of backgrounds. Effective coalition leaders can see conflict as an opportunity and recognize its benefits, rather than considering it something to be avoided. They can then help to identify common ground and seek compromises to ease the conflict.

Effective coalition leadership must also have strong group facilitation skills and the ability to share the spotlight. Leaders in a coalition must be able to guide meetings of all sizes involving numerous participants and various agendas. In these meetings, the leaders should allow everyone to have their say, while moving through a problem-solving process and ultimately making decisions to benefit the coalition as a whole. Coalition leadership should also possess the ability to share the spotlight with other members of the group for everyone involved in the coalition to feel they are important and play a vital role in contributing to the coalition's overall success.

Bibliography

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