Dispersed leadership

The most successful organisations can generally be described as "communities with a cause". While there is still a popular emphasis on the idea of the lone, heroic leader figure, sustainable and thriving organisations require individual skills to be harnessed within a collective framework. In the complex world of children's services, this is essential to help us rapidly make sense of it all and adjust our organisations to stay successful. Various leadership roles play different parts - from leading the strategic and political connections of organisations and managing relationships with partners, to delivering frontline practice to children and families. The concept of dispersed leadership recognises the contribution of different leadership roles, and that we can all be both leaders and followers at the same time.

1. Take leadership seriously. Leaving leadership to individual styles and preference puts an organisation at risk of under-performing. The clarity of an organisation's purpose and how it works together to achieve its goals should be something that generates a lot of attention and discussion. Taking this seriously means being open to debate and challenge, as there will be diverse points of view - even conflict - to be acknowledged and resolved. This is more than a "training" programme: it requires a clear and conscious effort both across the organisation and from self-aware and self-critical leaders. We could see this as a shift from the individual development of leaders to developing "leaderful" organisations.

2. Adopt an approach based upon learning. Research has found that leaders can profoundly influence a culture of safety by developing a learning culture within their organisations. This requires a value to be placed upon frontline knowledge, an interest in the concerns of leaders on the frontline such as social workers, and a willingness to act and feed back on issues. Public services have a strong interest in safety. When leaders at all levels learn together, knowledge can be used constructively and collaboratively to build shared understanding and better responses. Meanwhile, those who seek to learn most from people with direct experience of using services - children and families - will have an even richer bank of insight and intelligence for learning.

3. Ask a lot of those with formal positions of leadership. Moving towards dispersed leadership means looking at how an organisation is acting as a whole to get great results, rather than concentrating upon a set of individual traits. This takes effort - it is more than just the sum of the parts of the organisation. There has to be a concerted and consistent programme of engagement and attention to explore how power, influence and boundaries are managed within the organisation. It requires self-aware and emotionally intelligent leaders who can engage and respond to criticism about where services are performing less well. It also requires the skill to ensure that dispersed leadership does not become a distraction, and that points of clarity and direction in decision-making are also implemented in ways that support the continued contribution of wider leadership expertise. The task in children's services is to respond to complex human stories with humanity, creativity, passion and expertise. The best leaders understand the variety of ways in which that task can best be done.

4. Take strength from diversity. Recognising the valuable contribution made by all staff makes sense both in terms of retention and when it comes to succession planning. Programmes that focus on leadership development, such as the Firstline scheme for social work managers, enable people to develop their own leadership identity and skills that fit within their unique personal and professional context. When it comes to leadership, you cannot use a "one-size-fits-all" approach. People who see themselves as participants in an organisation's work and vision are more likely to contribute to service development. We know this is particularly true of children, young people and families who have experience of services, and that their willingness to offer time and input is linked to the wider experience of actually being heard.

5. Recognise that all of this takes place within a challenging context. We live in a world characterised by uncertainty and complexity, and are charged with working with families at points of great vulnerability in their lives. These factors attract a great deal of interest and research, yet they are our daily bread and butter. Social work is rooted in understanding a political context, which has a tendency to value traditional hero leader models and the idea of simply "fixing" people's problems. The shift to dispersed leadership and seeing service users as leaders in their own right can be challenging for senior managers at the top of organisations. However, the very best organisations mould themselves through managing upwards and through skilful "following" to create a shared sense of values and purpose throughout the system. After a summer of football, we are perhaps beginning to see that leadership is a team sport that works best when it runs through and involves the whole team.

• Peter Hay is a children's services consultant and coach