Chapter 3: Who Leads This Motley Crew? Shared and Team Leadership in the Guardians of the Galaxy

Superhero teams are often faced with a problem of power. Individual heroes who are powerful enough to headline their own film are asked to join forces with one another to battle even larger threats. The Avengers join forces to battle enemies greater than any single hero could handle. In the Guardians of the Galaxy films, we see a similar dynamic with our misfit band of spacefaring heroes. When a group of powerful (or skilled) individuals join a team, there can be some difficulty in managing leadership. In some cases, there’s a battle for power and leadership on the team.

Teams of talented individuals often participate in shared leadership. In this chapter, we’ll talk about how teams can benefit from shared leadership. We will discuss how teams’ function under the guidance of a leader and interact with each other as a group and with other teams as a formal unit. Finally, we’ll talk about how to make your team thrive using shared and team leadership theories!