Distributed leadership: working together to ride the waves: the action self-enabling reflective tool (ASERT)

New models of leadership are required if the higher education sector is to continue to provide leading edge change. While multiple theories of leadership exist, the Higher Education sector requires a less hierarchical approach that takes account of its specialised and professional context. This paper explores how an action self enabling tool, developed from research into the experience of several higher education institutions, can be used to support a distributed leadership process to build leadership capacity. While the focus of the project that underpinned the tool was on building leadership capacity of academics for learning and teaching, the findings demonstrate the need for an inclusive participative approach by which professional, administrative and academic staff benefit from collaborating to build a systematic, multi-facetted leadership approach appropriate for the sector.