Guide \u00b7 Distinction<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In brief<\/span>Distributed leadership spreads leadership broadly across many people and situations in an organisation. Shared leadership, by contrast, means a few people \u2013 often two \u2013 deliberately share one role and its responsibility. Related, but not the same.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Distributed leadership and shared leadership are often used interchangeably. In the research literature they are not the same \u2013 and the distinction matters, because it leads to different design questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From my own practice<\/p>\n\n In practice I notice the difference in the opening question. For a tandem it’s \u201cwhich of the two of us decides what?\u201d. For distributed leadership it’s \u201chow does leadership emerge across many roles?\u201d. Those are two different building sites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The term distributed leadership<\/em> comes mainly from organisational and educational research (Gronn, Spillane). It describes leadership not as the trait of a person and not as the matter of a fixed duo, but as something distributed across many actors, roles and situations<\/strong>, emerging there collectively. Leadership becomes a property of the system, not of the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Distributed vs. shared \u2013 the difference that often gets lost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What distributed leadership means<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Shared, distributed, delegation \u2013 the map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n