True Leaders Don't Create Followers, They Create More Leaders: The What, How and Why of Disperse

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it“

Andrew Carnegie

THE WHAT?

Dispersed leadership suggests that a successful leader is one who can develop leadership capacity in others. Nurturing team members so that they are not dependent on formal leaders in the hierarchy is a critical component of leadership. Dispersed leadership suggests that leadership potential is developed in others when the formal leader is able to build followers’ confidence and commitment to organizational goals.

THE HOW?

The formal leader becomes more of a facilitator within the group as leadership activity is dispersed across committed team members. Thus, the focus of leadership is moving from a focus on the individual who occupies formal authority within the hierarchy of the organization to a focus on the team. Along these lines, others have also suggested that leadership encompasses something other than a title or formal position to an individual. Therefore, leadership is in essence “organizing” activity rather than a formal position. Individuals at all levels in the organisation and in all roles can exert leadership influence over their colleagues and thus influence the overall leadership of the organisation Self-managed teams are often quoted as a good example of dispersed leadership at work.

AND THE WHY?

Why would dispersed leadership be beneficial to an organization?

Firstly, dispersed leadership allows substantial participation of all employees, it emphasizes specialized roles, behavioural traits, and unilateral functions. Because leadership is seen as a shared, it becomes a product of the interactions between the staff and the management with their combined knowledge and skill, together with the objectives of the organisation.

Distributed leadership is premised on people leading when and where they have expertise. This leads to more manageable and effective business practices stretched over multiple appointed leaders. Moreover, leaders are dependent on followers and followers are equally crucial in creating practice and understanding leadership dynamics.

Attention shifts from people’s actions to their social interactions. As human and social capital theory suggests that social relations enable or restrain productivity, thinking, and learning, dispersed leadership could lead to a better work environment for an organisation. Dispersed leadership brings people, materials, and organizational structures together in a common cause. Through dialectic engagement, conflict is validated as means to developing a more nuanced understanding. Collective inquiry potentially creates shared vision and accountability and reflects the dynamic interdependence and influence that occurs between individuals and groups as they engage in a continuous pattern of co-construction.

Distributed leadership as a non-hierarchical and inclusive leadership approach, fosters collaborative and ethical practice. It has the ability to empower employees, making them want to be committed towards the organisation and its objectives. All the members of the organisation’s contributions and beliefs are seen as important which lead to better support for organisational goals.

Dispersed leadership emphasize the critical relationship between motives, resources, leaders, and followers. Leadership is conceptualize as an organizational entity rather than the property of a single individual. Dispersed leadership potentially allows for constructivist conversations, reflective thinking, collaborative planning and problem solving to address the organisational problems.