Great Leadership Is a Network, Not a Hierarchy | Gitte Frederiksen
Transcript
Who’s in Charge?
Is it me?
Is it you?
Is it someone behind the curtain?
My point is, we often think of leadership as a role for the few, and the rest get to just lean back. That might be OK for an event like this, but I believe leadership by the few is not going to help us solve the problems ahead. These problems are complex and coming at us faster and faster.
We need to bring many minds together—more resources, more capabilities—and we need to do it effectively and sustainably.
What if leadership could be for the many?
That’s scary.
And for those of you thinking it won’t work—maybe in some cases, it won’t. But when it does, we get better outcomes and happier people, with everyone leaning in, even if just a bit more.
I’m a physicist turned management consultant, working with global companies on strategy, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation. I’m trained as an engineer, so when I started this job, everything was new to me. And I have to admit something: at work, whenever a task is my idea, I do it a bit better than when someone else tells me.
(Laughter)
Unless, of course, it’s my boss. Then I might feel like slowly proving it doesn’t work.
(Laughter)
Being curious and a little complacent, I often ask: why do we do things this way?
Most times, I find good answers. But whenever the answers seem outdated, I try to come up with new solutions.
Like with leadership.
A typical view of leadership is a hierarchical org chart. Either you’re a leader or you’re not. Most people are being led—not taking lead. Communication often flows from top to bottom along a single line, which doesn’t match the complexity of problems that move in several directions at once.
Decisions are left to one person—the leader—who, being only human, can become a bottleneck for speed and scale. They can miss new ideas, diverse capabilities, and potential that exist all over the chart.
So instead, imagine a network.
Everyone’s in charge.
We replace power of the few with influence of the many.
Sure, it looks more messy—but I’d argue more beautiful.
More multi-dimensional.
More dynamic.
More like nature.
I believe this model helps us do more and be less dependent on any one individual. It’s resilient. Progress is sustainable.
To move leadership from the few to the many, we each need to let go of a bit of power.
And that’s uncomfortable.
So let’s talk about how.
1. Remove Labels
Imagine your co-worker Lin says, “We need creative input,” and Joe goes, “Let’s ask accounting.”
(Laughter)
Said no one, ever.
(Laughter)
But maybe we should.
Labels come in many forms: functions, titles, genders, nationalities, educational backgrounds. They help us recognize things, and sometimes we work hard to earn them. So they’re comfortable. But they can also box people in, keeping us from seeing their full potential.
We need to think about diverse skill sets and perspectives when setting up teams. And once we have, what if you forgot, just for a second, who’s from marketing, who’s the data scientist, or who’s “the leader”?
I’ve been amazed by the surprising capabilities within our teams.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
And you also don’t know what others know.
Accounting might actually have a great marketing idea.
2. Share Everything
We’ve learned to share a lot—rides, scooters, even our homes. But when it comes to work, we often sit on information and resources.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I can’t ask that—it’s too stupid”?
Or maybe you’ve withheld information, thinking it might give you an edge?
(Laughter)
Or had the feeling, “Had I just known that, I would’ve done so much better”?
Imagine a team working on a green transition strategy. The conversation, inspired by a real team I worked with, goes something like this:
Amine says he’s working on emission reduction levers and asks for help.
Isabelle replies, “Do you have this dataset?”
Lisa says, “Oh, I did something similar. Shall we combine?”
Peter adds, “Another market worked on this—did you meet?”
This is leadership—not in the hierarchical sense, but in the sense of taking the lead on a problem by asking questions and involving people.
Leadership is not about giving answers. It’s about asking questions.
It’s about daring to show vulnerability.
Information is power. And information is everything—questions, data, context, emerging insights, work in progress, even water cooler conversations.
Sharing means less one-on-one communication and more crowdsourcing, more co-creation in open, transparent spaces, in real time—with more upheaval than you might think.
Wait—doesn’t that get messy? Even chaotic?
Well, we’re already used to information overload. You don’t read everything on social media. You quickly navigate to what matters to you.
And if you catch yourself thinking, “I can’t share that,” test it. Ask why.
The upside is huge.
We can leverage the crowd more effectively when we all have context.
It’s faster—less duplication, less rework.
We can parallelize instead of working sequentially.
Quality improves when we capture ideas at any hour and distribute quality checks across the full team.
And best of all, we get ownership.
Early involvement of customers and stakeholders means avoiding that classic one-way “show and tell.”
3. Be Kind
Yes, kindness.
Sounds simple, right? But in the moment, isn’t it easier to throw someone under the bus?
Have you tried working with an unkind leader—the one who shares blame but not credit?
Or the pretend-kind leader: “I know it’s Friday afternoon, and I need this by Monday 8 a.m.—but don’t spend your weekend on it.”
(Laughter)
Kind or unkind becomes especially clear when someone makes a mistake.
Take Sara. She spots a significant error and shares it with the full team.
The responses:
Bharat: “Thanks for sharing. That takes courage.”
Samuel: “Better now than never.”
Jenny: “No mistakes would mean we weren’t moving fast enough.”
The formal leaders didn’t think much of it at the time, but team members later said it was a defining moment.
They felt safe. They felt a growth mindset.
They trusted that people had their backs.
The team members also encouraged one another—“love it,” “spot on,” emojis.
It matters.
People often roll their eyes when we talk about kindness, but even small words go a long way.
This doesn’t mean lowering the bar or avoiding difficult conversations.
In fact, kindness allows us to take up even trickier topics.
The Results
Good projects deliver on time.
But let’s be honest—many don’t.
By removing labels, sharing everything, and being kind, we saw a spike. Though more bumpy, the curve became exponential. Results were better. Unexpected.
Like that team I mentioned.
People couldn’t believe the impact and ownership we created—in just eight weeks.
We’ve seen it across different teams and different outcomes.
Even in early pilots:
* 80 percent said they delivered more value
* 60 percent experienced better sustainability and work-life balance
And this in a company already known for high-performing teams.
When everyone is a leader, we do more—and do it better.
Now imagine taking the formal leader out.
That’s what happened when I went on maternity leave.
Nothing happened.
The team just kept going.
Even this talk—I didn’t come up with the ideas on my own.
It was crowdsourced and co-created from day one.
**Distributed leadership** is a movement that goes beyond traditional roles.
People are more likely to act when they feel ownership—when it’s their idea.
We need to create leaders, not followers.
This is not magic. But it won’t happen if traditional leaders block it.
We can’t afford anyone leaning back these days. With complex problems coming at us constantly, we need everyone’s knowledge and creativity.
Labels and hierarchies.
Hiding information.
Consolidating power.
Being unkind or pretend-kind.
None of that will help us create a better future.
So now when I ask:
Who’s in charge?
Who’s the leader today?
I want you all to raise your hands.
(Laughter)
Yes, you.
(Laughter)
Thank you.
(Applause)
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Photo Credits: Midjourney (Public Domain)
Conversational Leadership is the practice of creating space for what needs to be said. Coaching helps you develop this capacity in real, grounded ways.