In lieu of rigid command and control base leadership, a new wave of management is on the rise that values flexibility and people over complete control, MIT Sloan reported April 19.
Research has shown that companies with a more distributed leadership style, which allows for collaborative and autonomous work, fared better than those with a traditional top down approach when rolling out a new initiative.
"Top leaders are flipping the hierarchy upside down," said Kate Isaacs, PhD, an MIT lecturer and co-author of the research. "Their job isn't to be the smartest people in the room who have all the answers but rather to architect the gameboard where as many people as possible have permission to contribute the best of their expertise, their knowledge, their skills, and their ideas."
The distributed leadership style brings agility to an organization, requiring a shift toward management, which gives employees the freedom to work in flexible teams and take on their own strategic mindsets. The most nimble organizations embrace their employees autonomy and creativity and create space for them to lead their own projects and contribute their ideas.