What is leadership?
There’s a common association that we make when we talk about leadership in the workplace. It’s based on a traditional management theory that dates back to the late 1800s and represents what I like to call hero leadership. It’s the idea that leadership starts at the top. The CEO, the director, the manager – the boss. They need to exhibit leadership and it’s their responsibility to do so.
It’s a fundamental truth of the workplace and, to some degree, the foundation that any hierarchical structure is established on. If our bosses aren’t our leaders...well, that leads to chaos, right?
And I agree. But there’s a missing piece to the puzzle.
Hero leadership serves a place in any organisation. But today’s workplace requires a more refined approach that reaches beyond our traditional concept of leadership.
The key to that rests with introducing the kind of leadership that manifests itself from the bottom up instead of the top down and encourages us all to embrace the idea that we can, and should, be leaders. It’s called distributed leadership.
Distributed leadership is more interested in the practice of leadership than in specific roles and responsibilities. It’s the shared, collective form of leadership that creates an environment for change and improvement.
Where hero leadership relies on longevity or seniority, the alternative looks to collaboration and the ability to create an environment that optimises performance. Whether it’s the CEO launching a new strategy, the marketing executive championing a new approach to lead generation or the admin assistant that establishes a more efficient filing system – it’s leadership at every level.
Traditional leadership is typically understood as: ...The action or ability of leading a group of people or an organisation.
But that’s not enough. In today’s competitive business environment, leadership needs to be less about what we do and more reliant on why we do it. Leaders must focus and take responsibility for greater good, irrespective of their position, salary or experience. So I offer this alternative: Leadership is the ability to act as a catalyst for positive progress, empowering others to thrive and achieve a desired goal or state.
To excel, businesses need to leverage the passion, creativity and strengths of their employees. The most successful businesses will do this by developing a leadership culture where the initiative, motivation and commitment to excellence is distributed.

*S Zuhair Naqvi is the Managing Director of DicoTech Qatar WLL, and an EMBA alumnus of HEC Paris, Class of 2016.
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