When we think about leadership, most of us picture a hierarchy. A CEO sits at the top, managers beneath them, and decisions flow down through the organisation. For decades, this structure has shaped how we understand work, authority and productivity.
Leadership doesn’t have to be concentrated in a handful of roles. What if teams shared decision-making, distributed responsibility, and embedded authority within themselves instead of specific individuals?
As conversations around workplace culture, employee wellbeing and organisational effectiveness continue to evolve, alternative governance models are gaining attention. From grassroots organisations operating through collective decision-making to corporations experimenting with systems such as holacracy, organisations are beginning to challenge traditional assumptions about who leads and how they exercise power.
Understanding where leadership lies
Traditional workplace hierarchies often position leadership as something held by a select group of individuals. Responsibility for decision-making is concentrated at the top, while employees are expected to carry out decisions that have already been made. While in many ways this is simpler, providing clarity and efficiency, it can also create distance between those making decisions and the realities of day-to-day operations.
Exploring self-managed and collective organisations offers a different perspective. In these models, leadership is not necessarily removed, but is redistributed across teams. Power becomes shared through collective judgement, responsibility and decision-making. In doing so, organisations draw on a wider range of perspectives and experiences, and leaders have more time to look at the bigger mission, instead of getting bogged down in operational responsibilities.
What does delegation actually mean?
In many work places, delegation often means assigning tasks while decision-making power remains with leadership. But newer approaches challenge the idea. What if delegation wasn’t just about sharing work, but sharing power too?
Of course leadership still matters. Most organisations need direction, vision and people who can help guide-decision making. But broadening our understanding of leadership creates space for more people to contribute meaningfully.
Structures such as holacracy attempt to do exactly this. Through clearly defined roles and responsibilities, authority becomes less tied to job titles and more connected to the work itself. It creates opportunities for collaboration, shared ownership and a different way of thinking about productivity.
So what is Holacracy?
Holacracy is one example of a governance structure that challenges traditional management systems. Built around principles of transparency, experimentation, empowerment and equality, it aims to distribute responsibilities across teams, de-centring a management hierarchy.
What interests me most about this isn’t necessarily whether every organisation should adopt it, but what we can learn from it in relation to our understanding of leadership.
A lot of large organisations view self-management with scepticism. Shared leadership can sound messy. Disorganised. Even chaotic. But does collective leadership automatically mean a lack of structure and people do what they want? Actually, qualitative research found that these models rely on clear responsibility, fostering transparency and accountability. The goal isn’t to remove structure altogether. Instead of people getting stuck in layers of management, Holacracy creates a structure that allows for people to focus on a shared purpose.
Research into self-management frameworks has found that by decentralising decision-making, you can create greater transparency and accountability, particularly in industries where adaptability is key. You will be better equipped to respond to change when you place authority closer to the people dealing with day-to-day realities.
Trust is key
At Edge of Difference, trust is a vital aspect of how we work.
Similarly, trust seems to sit at the centre of almost every conversation about changing leadership, specifically collective leadership. Ultimately, these models only work if you have trust and communication. Trusting colleagues to make decisions, to take responsibility and trusting that leadership can emerge from different places within a team.
When trust exists, people are often more willing to share ideas, take initiative and contribute beyond what is the expected. In this way, even when non-hierarchical leadership is not possible for your organisation, we can draw out features of collective power such as trust, and create a more equitable and inclusive work environment.
Leadership can stop being something that belongs to a select few, but can allow everyone to practice leadership across an organisation.
Grassroots examples
Grassroots organisations have been practising these ideas for years. Here, collective leadership often emerges from communities rather than formal positions of authority. Instead of relying on a single leader, responsibility is shared among those working together towards a common aim. Leadership becomes rooted in participation, collaboration and collective action.
Community action programmes are a great example of this in practice. They create opportunities for people to identify challenges together and collectively work towards solutions. Change doesn’t arrive from above; it grows from within communities themselves.
What can we learn?
Not every organisation can completely transform its governance structure in this way. Moving towards self-management takes time, resources, organisation and commitment.
But maybe the point isn’t that everyone should adopt holacracy or abandon hierarchy altogether.
Instead, we can find how these models push us to ask better questions.
How can we create more inclusive workplaces?
Can we share responsibility more effectively?
How are we building trust into the way we work?
Are we recognising leadership in places we might normally look?
Collective leadership reminds us that we aren’t passive participants. We all have the ability to shape the workspaces around us, contribute to decisions and work alongside others towards meaningful change.
In doing so, leaders can identify young and diverse individuals that can be uplifted into leadership roles. Sometimes power doesn’t come from the stop, it starts when people decide to lead together.
At Edge of Difference, we work with organisations ready to close the gap between the culture they believe they have and the one their people are actually experiencing.
Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of “Future Talent: How Different People Will Be Tomorrow’s Leaders” by Mo Kanjilal Williams (to be published by Trotman in December 2026).
If this piece landed somewhere real for you, book a conversation with us and download our resource on “From Buzzword To Action: What Leaders Get Wrong About Belonging” to take action!
