Can Shared Leadership Fix the Overloaded CEO Role?

November 24, 2025 / Rolling Stone British /

Co-CEOs promise relief from mounting executive strain, but only the right partnership can make the model work. Unsplash+

The co-CEO trend is gaining momentum. Netflix, Salesforce and M&S are among the high-profile businesses that have trialled the two Chief Executives approach, with varying success. Now, Spotify joins the ranks, with CEO Daniel Ek set to be replaced by joint CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström in January. Oracle is making a similar move as Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia step in for Safra Catz, who herself shared the role with Mark Hurd a decade ago.

Is sharing the CEO load better than going solo? A study by AAPL of 87 co-CEO companies between 1996 and 2020 found these businesses generated average returns of 9.5 percent, with nearly 60 percent outperforming their peers. But with such a small sample size, the shared leadership approach is still in its relative infancy. So why are we seeing a rise in co-CEOs now, and what does this look like for the future of business?

Why now?

Economic, technological and geopolitical megatrends are impacting business goals and growth, forcing companies to adopt faster cycles of change. As a result, the demands placed on leaders have soared. Given the uncertainty and increased pace of today’s business environment, it is becoming harder to find all the skills and knowledge required to fulfil a functional CEO position wrapped up in a single individual. Believing that one person can “hold” the full spectrum of strategic, operational, cultural and external responsibilities is becoming unrealistic, and risky, too.

With mounting pressure, a huge volume of work and never-ending to-do lists, many individuals at the top are becoming disillusioned with corporate life and seeking alternative careers that are less stressful. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 sheds light on the impact of this CEO overwhelm, revealing that 71 percent of leaders report increased stress, and 40 percent are considering leaving their role due to stress and burnout. It is perhaps no wonder then that in PwC’s 2025 Global CEO Survey, when CEOs were asked how long they expect to remain in their current role, most answered five years or less. As CEOs have shorter and shorter tenures, businesses face heightened disruption and continual top-level restructuring.

Companies want leaders who can mobilize large, distributed workforces; connect across functions and industries; and pair big-picture thinking with deep domain experience. In theory, a co-CEO model—which formalizes distributed leadership—is one way to achieve this. But what does this look like in practice?

When the co-CEO model works, and when it doesn’t

For such “leadership duos” to be successful, compatibility is non-negotiable. First and foremost, co-CEOs must be able to get along, share common values, communicate constantly, resolve conflicts effectively, and present a unified external front—even if disagreements occur behind closed doors. Without that unity, companies risk muddled decision-making, delayed approvals and internal factions playing the two leaders against each other.

When it comes to strategy and scalability, the co-CEO model is most effective when each leader brings complementary skill sets to the table. Take Netflix as an example. Ted Sarandos’ expertise lies in market-facing brand and content, while his co-CEO Greg Peters’ expertise is in technology and operations. Combining their technological and commercial skills enabled the company to scale past 300 million members.

But the model can falter under pressure. SAP abandoned its co-CEO structure in 2020 after just six months, citing the need for “unambiguous leadership” during the pandemic, a reminder that even strong partnerships can strain under crisis conditions.

The future of shared leadership

There is no denying that a fine balance must be struck for the co-CEO approach to succeed. Yet it opens the door for businesses to experiment with what leadership at the top looks like for them—not just in the CEO’s office but across the whole C-suite.

Globally, there is a growing number of independent C-suite executives who are beginning to work with organizations on a “fractional” basis. Rather than being employed full-time, these experienced leaders work with organizations on a freelance basis, assisting the incumbent full-time C-level employee by providing joined-up and coordinated support to fill their capacity and skillset gaps with specialist C-suite expertise as needed.

This approach to the C-suite can strengthen succession planning and ensure continuity of leadership. With a combined co-CEO and fractional leadership approach, a firm could change one CEO at a time based on evolving strategic and cultural needs, rather than having a wholesale change in leadership. This ensures that companies aren’t left scrabbling to fill an empty CEO spot when faced with potentially disruptive change.

The trend of fractional leadership is not limited to a specific sector. It is particularly notable in sectors experiencing rapid change, like technology, software as a service (SaaS) and healthcare, where companies are quickly adapting to A.I.-driven disruptions. In these fields, the capability to recruit specialized skills at the C-suite level without a long-term obligation offers a significant competitive edge.

Ultimately, the co-CEO model has the potential to drastically improve executive well-being and, therefore, organizational performance. As pressure mounts on solo CEOs, organizations are expecting superhumans that just do not exist. Provided the partnership is built on trust, alignment and clear decision-making, sharing the load between two Chief Executives means that those at the top have extra capacity, less stress and shared responsibility to drive their business forward.