????通常在中小型公司中，多位創始人會擁有相同的最高頭銜。或許他們起步時是夫妻檔，又或許他們是在同一間宿舍里寫過代碼的兩個好朋友。在專業服務公司中，共同領導現象也很普遍。出于業務考慮，所有合伙人都需要擁有看上去同等的頭銜。

????我并不迷信于人們的頭銜。真正重要的是共同領導者對于公司擁有相同的長期愿景(特別是他們希望公司要做到多大——這個問題隨著時間的推移可能成為共同創始人之間的一個重大分歧)，團隊里的每個人對于誰擁有最終決定權都非常清楚。

????不管每個人的頭銜是什么，一家公司只能有一個真正的頭。如果員工們不清楚最后是誰來拍板，就會造成猶豫不決和焦慮不安。

????全食公司（Whole Foods）是一家蓬勃發展的采用聯席CEO模式公司。創始人約翰?梅克與公司元老級人物沃爾特?羅博共同掌舵。羅博最初于1991年加入公司，曾在加州管理一家門店。但全食公司是一個罕見的例外。

????大多數時候，這種格局都難以持續。權力很難分享。通常，聯席CEO們都不會明確誰負責什么。需要做決定時，員工們可能會左右為難。這就會在團隊中造成混亂，在聯席CEO之間引發沖突。

????那么，如果你希望延續聯席CEO模式，怎么才能防止出現這種情況呢？有些公司會作出這樣的選擇：一個主外，應對外部事物；一個主內，負責內部決策。另外一些公司行之有效的方式是讓一位聯席CEO負責銷售，另一位負責營運。

????專業服務公司的情況會復雜一些，這里通常會有一堆合伙人。我建議挑選一位合伙人減少在法律、會計或建筑等業務領域的時間投入，而把更多時間花在考慮如何發展公司這個問題上。這個人的主要工作是什么呢？正如我們在公司內部的研討會上所言，他的工作是“確保讓正確的人做好正確的事。”通常，所有人都很清楚，這個合伙人應該是誰。

????我拜訪過一家擁有5個合伙人的專業服務公司，當我問到，誰能確保雇傭最好的人員、負責兌現具體目標以及關鍵業績指標時，他們都指向了同一個人。他們就是這樣解決了誰領導這家公司的問題，與此同時又繼續保持5個人享有相同的股權和頭銜。

????一旦職責明確，聯席領導者需要自律，不干涉他人的領域，但私下仍能合作。一個很好的例子就是：如果一位員工要求外當家介入一件內當家的職權范圍內的事，外當家這時候要說：“這事你去找內當家談吧”，反之亦然。就算是出于好心，也絕不應提供任何建議或想法。應該強調一點，最終決定權在另一位領導者的手中。不管公司是聯席CEO模式，還是傳統結構的領導團隊，這個辦法都非常有用（財富中文網）???

????Often at small and midsize companies, founders will have the same top title. Maybe they started out as a husband and wife team or as two friends writing code in a dorm room. Shared leadership is also common at professional services firms, where partners all need to be seen as equals for business reasons.

????I'm not hung up on people's titles. What matters is that co-leaders share the same long-term vision for the company (particularly how big they want the company to become -- which can become a major source of disagreement between co-founders over time) -- and that everyone on the team is crystal clear about where the buck stops.

????There can only be one real head of the company, no matter what title each person has. If employees aren't clear about who's going to make key final decisions, it creates indecision and anxiety.

????One company that has thrived with co-CEOs is Whole Foods (WFM). John Mackey, the founder, shares the helm with Walter Robb, a company veteran who first came on board in 1991 and ran one of the company's stores in California. But Whole Foods is a rare exception.

????Most of the time, these situations blow up. It's hard to share power. Often, the co-CEOs never make it clear who is accountable for what. Then employees may literally play mom against dad when decisions need to be made. This leads to confusion among the team and tension between the co-CEOs.

????So how can you prevent this if you want to stick with the co-CEO model? Some companies pick a Mr. or Ms. Outside who acts as the public face of the firm -- and a counterpart inside, who handles internal decisions. At other companies, what works best is having one co-leader run sales while the other handles operations.

????It gets trickier at professional services firms, where it's common to have a bunch of principals. I recommend picking one partner who spends less time practicing law, accounting, or architecture and more on growing the company. And what is that person's primary job? As we say in workshops at my firm, it is "making sure the right people are doing the right things right." It's usually evident to everyone who this partner should be.

????When I visited one professional services firm with five principals and asked who was capable of making sure the best people were being hired and held accountable to concrete goals and key performance indicators, they all pointed to one person. That's how they sorted out who would lead the company while they continued to share the same ownership stakes and titles.

????Once clear on accountabilities, co-leaders need to have the discipline to stay out of each other's turf, though they can still collaborate privately. Case in point: If an employee asks Mr. Outside to weigh in on an issue that's in Ms. Inside's bailiwick, he needs to say, "Go talk to Ms. Inside" -- and vice versa. Refrain from sharing even an innocent suggestion or thought without reinforcing that it's the final decision of the other leader. This approach is useful whether there are co-CEOs or a traditionally structured leadership team.