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As learning organizations seek to expand their distance programs (online and mobile technologies), and to find the best and most appropriate use of technology, there is an increasing awareness that the strategic planning methods of the past are often inadequate. Leadership theories that focus on managing change do not address the issues of long-term constituencies who have unchanging long-term goals, although the methods of achieving the goals are constantly problematized by situational, financial and technological barriers and change. Scores of new books have claimed to offer the one sure remedy, the latest and greatest leadership book.

Again, it is no exaggeration to say that there are literally thousands of books and articles on leadership. In this area, leadership theories continue to cross-pollinate across fields (military leadership lessons for business; business for military; ancient philosophers for modern leaders, etc.), the demand seems to be in no way satisfied. Although one can argue that leadership is a very hands-on, applied art, and that the lessons of history seem to be doomed to be disregarded, there seems to be a universal groundswell about leadership. If we study it enough, perhaps this time we’ll get it right, seems to be the unstated underlying desire.

For the learning organization, this approach can be helpful, but unless the leadership issues are placed in real-world contexts, and the leadership challenges unique to a distributed environment are honestly depicted, studying and applying examples from other fields can have disastrous results. The pitfalls of uncritically applying popular leadership lessons and theories from other fields or times are briefly discussed below.

Transformational Leadership. This is a theory that, when properly applied, can help a leader and team members bring out the best in each person, with very positive results in terms of achieving the mission and all desired outcomes. However, many influential writers have glamourized transformation and transformational leadership to the point that it has become almost synonymous with extreme metamorphosis. The transformational leader, if some of the more extreme books are to believed, can take any individual or group — no matter or distant or disenfranchised — and turn them into true believers, who are galvanized by an incontrovertible truth — The Vision. In extreme cases, the vision is not arrived at through mutual buy-in or a team effort. Instead, it is pronounced by the leader. Transformation is expected, even required, and team members must demonstrate evidence of their transformation, which can result in a kind of conformity that discourages risk-taking and creative problem-solving. In the world of online and distance learning, rapid change required rapid response and the freedom to make decisions and changes at a very local level. Most adherents to the transformational leadership camp would claim that their approach allows individuals to enjoy freedom to think in non-conventional ways. However, closer examination reveals that a too-tight adherence to one interpretation of the vision will stifle creativity, and impose a political and/or ideological presence that was not there before.

Transactional Leadership. In today’s world, no one wants to be a transactional leader. Transactional leadership focuses on process, and it defines itself in terms of actions. To the popular leadership theory crowd, who are completely seduced by the notion of self-actualization through transformational leadership, this is dull fare indeed. It smacks of bureaucracy, with checklists of tasks and deadlines. However, in a distributed environment, sometimes transactional is the appropriate response. By creating functional blocks of tasks, with clear tasks, and assigned responsibilities, it is possible to assign work to people in far-flung locations, separated by time zones and schedules.

Distributed Leadership. Leadership is distributed in the team, and the role of leader changes constantly, depending upon the needs of the organization, or the task to be accomplished. Teams tend to be functional, and communities of practice tend to arise spontaneously, based in need, resources, and specific time constraints. Distributed leadership approaches are very effective in a setting where team members are moving constantly, and resources (information, financial, inputs) are also in flux. In this case, to have positive results, it is important to very clearly define the desired outcomes so that each member fully understands what it is, how it can be measured, and how to go about developing a step-by-step procedure.

Leadership through Followership . According to this theory, the followers create the leader. In essence, they provide the mandate, as well as the muscle to get the job done. Further, each leader was a follower once, and had to spend time in an apprenticeship phase. This allows the members to share a common experience, although they may be separated geographically, or by functional work unit.

Leadership through Example. Military history is filled with leaders who died valiantly in battle, who overcame adverse conditions and personal injury to lead their troops to victory. The leader in a distributed education program will have very few opportunities (one would hope) to fall on an enemy grenade, or to hang fire to cover critical troops or an objective. Nevertheless, the leader can assume roles and take on tasks that demonstrate that he or she does not consider herself to be too good for the day to day operations of the enterprise. To be willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure that the curriculum is developed, faculty are trained, students receive timely support, and that the infrastructure is in place and working is something team members can admire and emulate.

This is a brief introduction to a broad topic, and one that will be explored in more depth in future articles. Appropriate leadership is vital to the successful operation of a learning enterprise, and an eclectic yet tailored, situated approach is absolutely indispensable. The cross-pollination from other fields and the sayings and insights of historical thinkers are useful, too, but primarily when placed in context. Future articles in this series will attempt to do that.