Distributed leadership is based on the premise that leadership responsibilities and accountability are shared by those with the relevant skills or expertise so that the shared responsibility and accountability of multiple individuals within a workplace, bulds up as a fluid and emergent property (not controlled or held by one individual). Distributed leadership is based on eight hallmarks, or principles: shared responsibility, shared power, synergy, leadership capacity, organizational learning, equitable and ethical climate, democratic and investigative culture, and macro-community engagement.
Distributed leadership is based on three key ideas:
Leadership is the product of an interacting group or network of individuals. It is not based on the actions of a single person.
Expertise should be distributed across an organization and not concentrated in the hands of select individuals.
The possibility of leadership should be made open to those who might have been previously excluded.
Distributed leadership is a diverse and broad concept and shares some overlap with democratic, participative, collaborative, and shared leadership. However, it promotes leadership as a fluid and emergent property, avoids the typical leader-follower dynamic, and distributes responsibility based on expertise. The model also acknowledges the diversity, maturity, and interdependence of individuals and how deep cultural values influence democratic governance.
The strategy has seen significant uptake in educational institutions but is also used to create optimal leadership and organizational structure across multiple industries.
The eight hallmarks of distributed leadership
Diane R. Dean, Associate Professor at Illinois State University, created the following eight hallmarks to synthesize the various theories of what constitutes distributed leadership:
Shared responsibility – distributed leadership regards leadership as the sum total of the behavior of many individuals. Organizational goals are best achieved through a mix of styles and participants.
Shared power and authority – power or authority should be segmented with a new focus on participation, empowerment, dialogue, and cooperation.
Synergy – when shared decision-making occurs, participants develop strong relationships based on mutual understanding. Since the performance of the group is assessed, team members leverage their skills and knowledge to help others compensate for deficiencies.
Leadership capacity – the leadership capacity of an organization is based on the collective knowledge of its employees. Individuals are encouraged to take responsibility for their own goal setting, with passiveness discouraged. Importantly, individuals are nurtured for their leadership potential.
Organizational learning – collectively managed organizations must also create, share, and apply knowledge in a similar fashion. Team members take ownership of their problems, share common values, hold mutual beliefs, and collaboratively derive meaning for the benefit of the whole.
Equitable and ethical climate – by its very nature, distributed leadership involves a diverse range of stakeholders in decision-making. This significantly reduces the risk of ill-considered or unethical decisions.
Democratic and investigative culture – culture defines what people do and why they do it. Distributed leadership creates a democratic culture based on shared identities and definitions of what is important. On the other hand, a focus on leadership capacity through learning creates an investigative culture.
Macro-community engagement – lastly, the distributed leadershipmodel acknowledges that increasingly complex internal and external environments are impossible to control. Instead, the model focuses on the interconnectedness of individuals and views the environment as a network of exchange and reciprocity.
Google’sDistributed leadership example
Google’s distributed leadership culture may hark back to Larry Page and Sergey Brin who, before they founded the company, were academics with a penchant for independent research and thinking.
Google is known to hire the finest talent and affords them the autonomy to exercise their creativity and maximize their talents.
While certainly not its own invention, evidence of distributed leadership can be seen in the way Google utilizes the 70-20-10 rule. In other words:
70% of an employee’s time is spent on Google’s core businesses of search and advertising.
20% of an employee’s time is spent on projects related to core businesses such as Google Earth some aspects of Google Maps, and
The remaining 10% can be devoted to employee passion projects based on ideas that may seem crazy or transformational.
While many employees no doubt consider 10% of the workday to be free time, Google sees it as an investment in its own future.
With all staff encouraged to be innovators, there is less chance they leave the company and develop their ideas elsewhere.
This approach to innovation also means that Page and Brin do not dictate that only certain types of products and services can be developed.
Google Glass, Google News, and AdSense are some of the more notable products that started as employee ideas.
Eric Schmidt’s distributed leadership principles
When Eric Schmidt was appointed CEO of Google in 2001, there were fears that his corporate background would not gel with the distributed leadership ideals possessed by Page and Brin.
However, over his 20-year tenure at Google, Schmidt demonstrated that he had much in common with the distributed leadership culture.
In fact, Schmidt led the company to reach $1 billion in revenue in just six years (a full decade faster than Microsoft).
Schmidt’s distributed leadership best practices can be summarised in the following points.
1 – Get to know your employees.
Schmidt made a list of his best employees and made a point to interact with them personally and professionally. He also insulated them from any distractions that could set them off course.
2 – Establish new ways to reward and then promote high performers
Some of the initiatives Schmidt introduced were dinner with the CEO and a video called The Factory Tour where employees were invited to explain their ideas to the company.
3 – If there are problems that need to be solved, let employees own them
To facilitate ownership, Schmidt would provide an extremely broad overview of a company objective and leave employees to arrive at their own conclusions.
However, he still made the objective relatable.
For instance, Google’s vision to organize the world’s information to benefit customers and societies is something every employee can get behind.
There are also many potential innovations that align with this purpose.
4 – Ensure employees can function outside of Google’s hierarchy
This was best exemplified by the 70/20/10 rule which we explained earlier.
5 – Performance reviews should be conducted by someone the employee respects for their objectivity and unbiasedness
During Schmidt’s rein, peer involvement was one aspect of biannual employee performance reviews. The employee in question was required to select 3 to 8 of their peers who were best qualified to comment on their contributions, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Key takeaways:
Distributed leadership is a leadershipmodel favoring the shared responsibility and accountability of multiple individuals within a workplace.
Distributed leadership promotes leadership as a fluid and emergent property that is not controlled or held by one individual. In this way, the traditional leader-follower dynamic is avoided.
Distributed leadership is based on eight hallmarks, or principles: shared responsibility, shared power, synergy, leadership capacity, organizational learning, equitable and ethical climate, democratic and investigative culture, and macro-community engagement.
Leadership styles encompass the behavioral qualities of a leader. These qualities are commonly used to direct, motivate, or manage groups of people. Some of the most recognized leadership styles include Autocratic, Democratic, or Laissez-Faire leadership styles.
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles.
Adaptive leadership is a model used by leaders to help individuals adapt to complex or rapidly changing environments. Adaptive leadership is defined by three core components (precious or expendable, experimentation and smart risks, disciplined assessment). Growth occurs when an organization discards ineffective ways of operating. Then, active leaders implement new initiatives and monitor their impact.
Developed by business consultants Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey in the 1960s, delegative leadership is a leadership style where authority figures empower subordinates to exercise autonomy. For this reason, it is also called laissez-faire leadership. In some cases, this type of leadership can lead to increases in work quality and decision-making. In a few other cases, this type of leadership needs to be balanced out to prevent a lack of direction and cohesiveness of the team.
Distributed leadership is based on the premise that leadership responsibilities and accountability are shared by those with the relevant skills or expertise so that the shared responsibility and accountability of multiple individuals within a workplace, bulds up as a fluid and emergent property (not controlled or held by one individual). Distributed leadership is based on eight hallmarks, or principles: shared responsibility, shared power, synergy, leadership capacity, organizational learning, equitable and ethical climate, democratic and investigative culture, and macro-community engagement.
Ethical leaders adhere to certain values and beliefs irrespective of whether they are in the home or office. In essence, ethical leaders are motivated and guided by the inherent dignity and rights of other people.
Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that motivates, encourages, and inspires employees to contribute to company growth. Leadership expert James McGregor Burns first described the concept of transformational leadership in a 1978 book entitled Leadership. Although Burns’ research was focused on political leaders, the term is also applicable for businesses and organizational psychology.
Those who lead by example let their actions (and not their words) exemplify acceptable forms of behavior or conduct. In a manager-subordinate context, the intention of leading by example is for employees to emulate this behavior or conduct themselves.
A leader is someone within an organization who possesses the ability to influence and lead others by example. Leaders inspire, support, and encourage those beneath them and work continuously to achieve objectives. A boss is someone within an organization who gives direct orders to subordinates, tends to be autocratic, and prefers to be in control at all times.
Situational leadership is based on situational leadership theory. Developed by authors Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the late 1960s, the theory’s fundamental belief is that there is no single leadership style that is best for every situation. Situational leadership is based on the belief that no single leadership style is best. In other words, the best style depends on the situation at hand.
Succession planning is a process that involves the identification and development of future leaders across all levels within a company. In essence, succession planning is a way for businesses to prepare for the future. The process ensures that when a key employee decides to leave, the company has someone else in the pipeline to fill their position.
Fielder’s contingency model argues no style of leadership is superior to the rest evaluated against three measures of situational control, including leader-member relations, task structure, and leader power level. In Fiedler’s contingency model, task-oriented leaders perform best in highly favorable and unfavorable circumstances. Relationship-oriented leaders perform best in situations that are moderately favorable but can improve their position by using superior interpersonal skills.
In the context of an organization, cultural models are frameworks that define, shape, and influence corporate culture. Cultural models also provide some structure to a corporate culture that tends to be fluid and vulnerable to change. Once upon a time, most businesses utilized a hierarchical culture where various levels of management oversaw subordinates below them. Today, however, there exists a greater diversity in models as leaders realize the top-down approach is outdated in many industries and that success can be found elsewhere.
Action-centered leadership defines leadership in the context of three interlocking areas of responsibility and concern. This framework is used by leaders in the management of teams, groups, and organizations.
Developed in the 1960s and first published in 1973, action-centered leadership was revolutionary for its time because it believed leaders could learn the skills they needed to manage others effectively.
Adair believed that effective leadership was exemplified by three overlapping circles (responsibilities): achieve the task, build and maintain the team, and develop the individual.
High-performance coaches work with individuals in personal and professional contexts to enable them to reach their full potential. While these sorts of coaches are commonly associated with sports, it should be noted that the act of coaching is a specific type of behavior that is also useful in business and leadership.
When most people are asked to define power, they think about the power a leader possesses as a function of their responsibility for subordinates. Others may think that power comes from the title or position this individual holds.
Tipping Point Leadership is a low-cost means of achieving a strategic shift in an organization by focusing on extremes. Here, the extremes may refer to small groups of people, acts, and activities that exert a disproportionate influence over business performance.
The Vroom-Yetton decision model is a decision-making process based on situational leadership. According to this model, there are five decision-making styles guides group-based decision-making according to the situation at hand and the level of involvement of subordinates: Autocratic Type 1 (AI), Autocratic Type 2 (AII), Consultative Type 1 (CI), Consultative Type 2 (CII), Group-based Type 2 (GII).
Likert’s management systems were developed by American social psychologist Rensis Likert. Likert’s management systems are a series of leadership theories based on the study of various organizational dynamics and characteristics. Likert proposed four systems of management, which can also be thought of as leadership styles: Exploitative authoritative, Benevolent authoritative, Consultative, Participative.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
