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Engineering Leadership Guide

Distributed Leadership

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of those in specific leadership positions (e.g. with seniority, or line management responsibility). Distributed leadership aims to provide every individual with the opportunity to impact change.

Examples of places where an engineer member may take a lead:

  • When assigned as Engineering Owner for a problem

  • During meeting or workshop

  • For investigation or experiment

Key aspects of distributed leadership include

  • Empowerment: Colleagues are empowered to take initiative and make decisions. Empowerment fosters a sense of ownership and accountability.

  • Collaboration: Distributed leadership encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing, enabling more innovative and effective solutions.

  • Adaptability: By not centralising leadership in a few individuals, an organization can be more adaptable and responsive to change.

  • Diversity: Distributing leadership enables a wider range of diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise when making decisions.

  • Openness: Open communication channels allows ideas and feedback flow more freely across different levels of the organisation.

Servant Leadership

Those in senior and or management positions point the spotlight away from themselves and onto their team, and are never a single point of failure.

They continuously challenge themselves to answer the questions "How can I best serve my team?" and "How can I help my team thrive?".

Leadership Behaviours

In a distributed leadership environment, it is important to understand the behaviours expected when taking the lead.

  • Active listening (vs directing conversation)
  • Coaching, mentoring & knowledge sharing (vs teaching or preaching)
  • Taking coordinator responsibility (rather than complete ownership), for example for:
    • collaboration
    • communication
    • documentation
  • Taking accountability for what you are taking a lead on