Master distributed leadership to build resilient organisations. Learn proven strategies for sharing leadership responsibility and developing leadership capacity across teams.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Mon 26th January 2026
Bottom Line Up Front: Distributed leadership is an organisational approach where leadership responsibilities and activities are spread across multiple individuals rather than concentrated in designated leaders. Research from the Center for Creative Leadership demonstrates that organisations with distributed leadership structures show 35% higher adaptability and significantly improved innovation outcomes. Companies like W.L. Gore, Haier, and Buurtzorg have achieved remarkable success through distributed leadership models.
The traditional model of leadership—a single heroic figure at the apex directing all significant decisions—has reached its limits. Today's challenges arrive faster than any individual can process, require expertise no single person possesses, and demand responses coordinated across boundaries that traditional hierarchies struggle to span.
Consider the remarkable story of Buurtzorg, the Dutch healthcare organisation that revolutionised home nursing through radically distributed leadership. Founded in 2006 with four nurses, it grew to over 15,000 employees whilst maintaining exceptional patient outcomes and employee satisfaction—with almost no management hierarchy. Teams of 10-12 nurses manage their own scheduling, patient care, hiring, and administration.
This isn't an isolated experiment. From W.L. Gore's lattice organisation to Haier's 4,000+ microenterprises, evidence increasingly shows that distributed leadership creates organisations capable of thriving in volatile environments where concentrated leadership cannot cope.
Distributed leadership is a leadership approach in which leadership functions and responsibilities are shared among multiple individuals rather than being concentrated in a single leader or small leadership team. It conceptualises leadership as activity rather than position, emphasising that leadership can emerge from anywhere in an organisation.
The concept emerged from educational research by James Spillane, Peter Gronn, and Alma Harris, but has been increasingly applied to business contexts. It builds on earlier ideas including shared leadership, collective leadership, and team leadership.
| Concentrated Leadership | Distributed Leadership |
|---|---|
| Leadership as position | Leadership as activity |
| Authority from hierarchy | Authority from contribution |
| Few designated leaders | Many emerging leaders |
| Decisions flow upward | Decisions made at appropriate level |
| Leaders direct followers | Leadership functions distributed |
Key distinctions:
The first principle challenges fundamental assumptions. Traditional thinking treats leadership as something possessed by people in certain roles. Distributed leadership reconceptualises leadership as activity that can be performed by anyone, regardless of formal authority.
"Leadership is an activity, not a position." — Ronald Heifetz
This shift has profound implications:
British military doctrine increasingly embraces this principle through "mission command"—where leadership emerges at appropriate levels based on understanding of commander's intent rather than detailed orders from above.
Distributed leadership recognises that different people contribute different leadership capabilities. Rather than expecting complete leadership from single individuals, distributed models build complementary teams.
Types of complementary contribution:
| Contribution Type | Example Activities |
|---|---|
| Vision and direction | Setting goals, articulating purpose |
| Execution and delivery | Coordinating action, solving problems |
| Relationship and culture | Building trust, managing conflict |
| Technical expertise | Providing specialist knowledge |
| Challenge and critique | Questioning assumptions, identifying risks |
The most effective distributed leadership ensures appropriate combinations. When W.L. Gore forms project teams, they deliberately combine different "flavours of leadership" to ensure comprehensive coverage.
Distributed leadership treats leadership development as organisation-wide priority. Everyone has leadership capacity to develop; the organisation benefits from developing that capacity broadly.
Benefits of broad leadership development:
This democratisation of development contrasts with traditional high-potential programmes that focus resources on identified future executives.
Distributed leadership doesn't happen automatically—it requires deliberate design. Structures, systems, and cultures must enable rather than constrain distributed leadership.
Enabling elements:
Organisations that declare distributed leadership whilst maintaining command-and-control systems create frustration without capturing benefits.
Concentrated leadership creates vulnerability. When key leaders leave, become incapacitated, or simply reach capacity limits, organisations dependent on them struggle. Distributed leadership creates redundancy that enables continuity.
Resilience mechanisms:
Research by McKinsey shows that organisations with distributed leadership recovered 2.4 times faster from the COVID-19 disruption than those with concentrated leadership structures.
Centralised leadership creates bottlenecks. Decisions wait for leaders' attention; responses slow as information travels up and decisions travel down. Distributed leadership enables faster response by empowering local action.
Speed advantages:
| Centralised Model | Distributed Model |
|---|---|
| Information travels up hierarchy | Information available locally |
| Decision-maker often distant | Decision-maker close to situation |
| Approval cycles create delay | Authority to act exists locally |
| Coordination managed centrally | Coordination through networks |
Morning Star, the world's largest tomato processor, demonstrates this agility. With no managers and distributed decision-making, they can reconfigure operations within hours when conditions change—far faster than traditionally-organised competitors.
Innovation often emerges from unexpected combinations and boundary-crossing insights. Distributed leadership creates conditions for this emergence by empowering many people to experiment, connect, and create.
Innovation enablers:
3M's famous "15% time" policy—allowing employees to spend portion of time on projects of their choosing—exemplifies distributed leadership enabling innovation. Post-it Notes emerged from this distributed approach.
Define clear decision rights:
Create explicit clarity about what decisions can be made at each level. The RACI framework (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) helps clarify roles, but distributed leadership requires genuine authority transfer, not just task assignment.
Questions to clarify:
Enable information access:
Leadership requires information. Distributed leadership requires information systems that make relevant data available to those exercising leadership, not just those in formal positions.
Build capability broadly:
People cannot exercise leadership they haven't developed. Invest in leadership development at all levels:
Distributed leadership transforms rather than eliminates senior roles. Senior leaders become architects of systems that enable distributed leadership rather than primary decision-makers.
Senior leader responsibilities in distributed systems:
| Traditional Role | Distributed Role |
|---|---|
| Making decisions | Designing decision-making systems |
| Directing action | Creating conditions for effective action |
| Controlling resources | Enabling resource allocation |
| Developing high-potentials | Building broad leadership capability |
| Providing answers | Asking powerful questions |
Boundary spanning:
Some coordination must occur at higher levels, particularly for cross-unit issues. Senior leaders provide this coordination whilst avoiding re-centralising decisions that could be distributed.
Culture shaping:
Distributed leadership culture develops when senior leaders consistently demonstrate trust in others' leadership, celebrate distributed leadership contributions, and resist the pull toward centralised control.
Create accountability mechanisms:
Distributed authority requires distributed accountability. Mechanisms include:
Continuously develop capacity:
Distributed leadership isn't implemented once—it requires ongoing development:
Navigate resistance thoughtfully:
Traditional leaders may feel threatened by distribution. Their identity and influence have been built on concentrated authority; distribution can feel like diminishment.
Addressing resistance:
W.L. Gore, maker of Gore-Tex, has operated with distributed leadership since its founding in 1958. The company has no traditional hierarchy—instead operating through a "lattice organisation" where leadership emerges from contribution.
Key features:
Results:
Chinese appliance giant Haier, under CEO Zhang Ruimin, has transformed from traditional hierarchy to 4,000+ microenterprises. Each microenterprise has significant autonomy to make decisions, hire staff, and allocate resources.
Key features:
Results:
Buurtzorg revolutionised Dutch home healthcare through radically distributed leadership. Teams of nurses manage all aspects of patient care without managers.
Key features:
Results:
Distributed leadership creates coordination challenges. When many people exercise leadership independently, ensuring coherence requires mechanisms beyond hierarchical control.
Coordination mechanisms:
Traditional accountability flows through hierarchy. Distributed leadership requires different approaches:
Accountability approaches:
| Mechanism | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Outcome transparency | Visible results create natural accountability |
| Peer accountability | Lateral relationships provide feedback |
| Customer accountability | External stakeholders judge performance |
| Self-accountability | Internalised standards guide behaviour |
| Team accountability | Collective responsibility for outcomes |
Not all leadership is good leadership. Distributed models create risk of poor decisions causing damage.
Quality assurance approaches:
Distributed leadership complements other approaches:
| Leadership Style | Relationship to Distributed Leadership |
|---|---|
| Servant leadership | Focus on developing others aligns naturally |
| Collaborative leadership | Collaboration benefits from distributed authority |
| Adaptive leadership | Distributed sensing enables adaptive response |
| Authentic leadership | Provides trust foundation for distribution |
Explore how distributed leadership supports inclusive leadership by engaging leadership from diverse sources and enables ethical leadership through widely shared values.
Building distributed leadership capacity requires sustained investment at multiple levels. Our free leadership seminar introduces distributed leadership principles and helps participants assess their organisations' readiness for greater distribution.
For comprehensive development, our comprehensive leadership programme develops both individual leadership capability and understanding of how to build distributed leadership systems.
The future belongs to organisations that develop leadership as collective capacity rather than individual attribute. These organisations can respond to challenges wherever they arise, adapt faster than hierarchically dependent competitors, and sustain performance through leadership transitions.
Like the flocking behaviour of starlings—where thousands of birds create stunning patterns without central coordination—distributed leadership produces collective capability that exceeds what any individual could direct.
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." — Theodore Roosevelt
Building distributed leadership requires investment and commitment. Traditional habits of centralisation are strong. But organisations that make this investment create capabilities that competitors cannot easily replicate.
The imperative is clear: In a world of distributed challenges, leadership must be distributed to meet them. Organisations that master distributed leadership will lead their industries; those that cling to concentrated control will struggle to keep pace.
Delegation transfers specific tasks whilst retaining authority with the delegator. Distributed leadership transfers genuine leadership responsibility—the ability to make decisions, take initiative, and exercise judgement. Delegation is top-down assignment; distributed leadership is systemic sharing of leadership functions.
No. Distributed leadership can operate within hierarchical structures. The hierarchy defines the architecture within which distributed leadership occurs. What changes is where leadership activity happens—throughout the organisation rather than concentrated at the top.
Start with a specific domain where distributed leadership could add value. Clarify decision rights, ensure information access, develop capability, and then genuinely distribute authority. Learn from this pilot before expanding to other areas.
Yes, with appropriate adaptation. Regulated industries require certain decisions to be made by designated individuals, but much leadership can still be distributed. Healthcare, financial services, and aviation all have examples of effective distributed leadership within regulatory constraints.
Key metrics include: leadership activity distribution (who exercises leadership, how often), capability development across levels, speed of response to challenges, resilience during transitions, and engagement scores reflecting distributed leadership experience.
Core skills include: decision-making judgement, boundary management (knowing when to act and when to escalate), collaboration and coordination, communication, and comfort with ambiguity. Most people can develop these skills with appropriate investment.