Distributed leadership through the looking glass

Distributed leadership is a concept that is both popular and controversial. It has caught the imagination of those in the leadership field and, like all new ideas, it has its proponents and its critics. Whatever one feels about its popularity, its credibility, or legitimacy it is unquestionable that its impact on the leadership field in has been dramatic. Certainly, the idea that leadership is more than the preserve of an individual is not particularly new. But distributed leadership theory offers an original perspective on this view of leadership and puts leadership practice centre stage. The work of James Spillane and his colleagues (Spillane et al., 2001, 2004) in particular, has provided a much needed theoretical framework for thinking about the practice of leadership. This work has been a major catalyst within the leadership field and has prompted much challenge, debate and empirical enquiry focused on leadership as practice (Spillane and Diamond, 2007).