A critical attribute of an effective corporate board is its ability to act as a team , and the first place to start building teamwork in the board is arguably experiencing shared leadership. Shared team leadership is a process in which the behavioral roles of leadership may be played by multiple individuals . In boards, due to the diversity of members , shared responsibility of boards , and board members' high experience and status board leadership is often expected to be practiced collectively . In fact, high status board members may not accept the vertical leadership, leadership typically comes from a person who has been appointed to a hierarchical position, by a single board member, and board members who are expert in different fields may become leaders in discussions held in those fields. It should be emphasized that vertical leadership and shared leadership can exist simultaneously