Distributed leadership

Traditional conceptions treat leadership as an individual quality – an ability or propensity that one person can develop and exercise – and as a discrete role that an individual can play within an organization. In contrast, James Spillane and John Diamond (Spillane, 2006; Spillane & Diamond, 2007) and Alma Harris (2008) argue that leadership functions and responsibilities can be spread or distributed across a number of people, tools, and routines. From this perspective, formal authority and responsibility for developing a productive staff may lie with a school leader. However, teachers, coaches or others who serve as mentors or who organize the work of grade level teams can take on some of those responsibilities. Similarly, protocols and formal or informal reflection processes that facilitate peer observations can help to distribute the work of instructional leadership over a wider group of individuals. This distribution of leadership functions:

• Allows the organization to benefit from individuals who have more relevant expertise or have access to more up-to-date information than an individual leader
• Lessens the burden of responsibilities that fall on a single person
• Contributes to greater stability and helps organizations to survive and thrive through leadership transitions and other disruptions

At the same time, assigning formal leadership responsibilities to different individuals or creating structures for participatory decision-making does not necessarily mean that leadership is distributed. The extent to which leadership is distributed reflects how leadership functions are actually carried out, regardless of what organizational charts or formal job descriptions specify.