In this article, we dive into distributed leadership, look at how you can bring this leadership style to life in your organization, and take a closer look at the many advantages and disadvantages that come with the ladership style.
What is distributed leadership?
Distributed leadership is about delegating, that is, distributing, leadership tasks and responsibilities down through the layers of the organization. Instead of centering all power around single formal managers, decision-making responsibilities are distributed to multiple levels of employees based on their expertise, knowledge, and abilities.
Thus, a collaboration is created across the company with the aim of achieving the organization's goals and visions. Informal managers must therefore also be recognised, as they can help with the delegation of responsibilities when they are already informally taking on leadership tasks.
At the same time, distributed leadership creates a more flexible and dynamic work environment, where decisions are made closer to the relevant issues as they are delegated to a wider spectrum of employees.
However, it is not enough to delegate decision-making authority, as there is no guarantee that good decisions will lead to sustainable solutions. However, it is also not certain that these decisions will be implemented at all in the organization.
So, what is good and what is bad about delegating decision-making responsibilities out?
Benefits of Distributed leadership
The benefits of distributed leadership are many and we have compiled a small overview of the main benefits that you can achieve by implementing distributed management.
- Flexible and efficient decision making:
Distributed leadership enables faster decisions as they are made by those closest to the problem. This results in a more efficient and flexible decision-making process. - Expertise:
Distributed leadership utilizes the collective expertise of the organization. This is done by the fact that the tasks are distributed more broadly and organized according to the competencies of the employees. In this way, a better use of the existing expertise within the organization arises. - Increased employee engagement:
Employees feel more engaged as they have greater control and co-determination over their work and decision-making.
Disadvantages of distributed leadership
With advantages also come disadvantages, and it is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with these disadvantages before any implementation.
- Risk of inconsistency
Decisions may, due to delegation, vary in quality and consistency if there is insufficient coordination or guidelines for the areas of responsibility.
- Need for strong communication and leadership
It requires a robust communication structure and clear leadership to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction in the organization. Although the manager has to delegate tasks, this does not mean that the leadership is deprived of responsibility for the tasks completely - their responsibility lies in ensuring the correct delegation of tasks with regular feedback and quality assurance.
Read more: Feedback & Dialogue
- Change resistance
Some employees and managers may resist the transition to distributed leadership because of concerns about loss of control or change in work culture. If there is generally not a culture of trust in one another, distributed leadership can be difficult to implement.
Read more: Coaching and Curiosity
Distributed leadership is thus a progressive approach that can strengthen the ability of organizations to adapt and innovate in a dynamic culture. However, it requires a well-structured approach and a mobile leadership to fully realize the potential of distributed management.
How to implement distributed leadership
If, after considering the advantages and disadvantages of distributed leadership, you would like to get started with the implementation, here are 4 starting points that can help you to see the implementation in your organization:
- Clear communication of goals and visions
One of the most important things in implementing distributed leadership is to create clear communication during implementation. By delegating responsibility to all layers of the organization, attention to the goals and visions of the organization increases so that they appear more clearly and clearly to the individual employee. Here, however, it is important that attention is drawn to clearly communicating tasks and objectives so that the delegated tasks can be solved correctly and sustainably. This also ensures that decisions are made in line with the overall strategy of the organization.
- Co-ownership and delegation of responsibility
Make an effort to find the right employees for the tasks and in charge. By finding competent employees in the organization and giving them co-responsibility based on their abilities and experiences, ownership and motivation is created for the individual employees.
- Autonomy
An advantage of distributed leadership is increased autonomy. By giving employees the freedom to make their own decisions, and showing them confidence in their area of responsibility, the autonomy of the organization increases. Here it is essential for you as a manager to support yourself with resources and regular feedback, but without employees feeling supervised and without you as a manager performing micromanagement.
Read more: Feedback - a tool in management that provides better relationships and stronger performance
- Trust and collaboration
Trust and cooperation must be fundamental values for the work environment in the organization. This should always apply, but especially when implementing a distributed leadership style. In order for it to succeed, it requires trust in its employees and the will to succeed in good cooperation. Distributed leadership works best when there is open communication and respect for different points of view.
As you've probably already figured out, distributed leadership is a complex but beneficial management style to promote efficiency and employee engagement for your organization.
Read and learn about psychological safety: 8 tips: How to create psychological safety at work.
Examples of distributed leadership in practice
So, who has been successful with distributed leadership? A lot of theoretical knowledge is good, but examples in practice can sometimes give us a broader understanding of the leadership style. We have briefly highlighted two companies below that have managed to implement a distributed management style.
Semco Group
Semco, led by Ricardo Semler, is a Brazilian industrial company, which is known for its radical approach to leadership. Semler has implemented a flat structure where employees have the power to make decisions on everything from salaries to strategic directions for the organization. This has led to an extremely flexible, efficient and innovative company culture that benefits employees, reputation and revenue alike. *
Spotify
The music service Spotify is an example of distributed leadership in the technology industry. Spotify employs “agile” teams, where decision-making authority lies with the self-organising teams, known as “squads.” These teams are responsible for their own projects and have the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Again, this is distributed management, in which responsibility and decision-making power are shared out over several layers of the company. **
Read more: What is agile leadership and how to master it?
* Semco: https://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Worlds-Unusual/dp/0446670553
** Spotify: https://engineering.atspotify.com/
