Horizontal Leadership, as presented by Gabriele Carboni and Philip Kotler in Enlightened Management, represents a paradigm shift from vertical hierarchies to distributed, participatory leadership. Rooted in Humanistic Management, Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 1970), and Systems Thinking (Senge, 1990), this model aligns with the principles of Impact Marketing and People × Purpose × Planet (P³). It integrates concepts from shared leadership and collective intelligence, emphasizing that leadership can and should emerge at all levels of an organization — not just from the top.

Horizontal Leadership redefines the structure of organizational power, replacing command-and-control hierarchies with interdependent roles based on responsibility, collaboration, and mutual respect.
It operates through three core roles, each essential to the organization’s vitality and continuity:

1. Leaders (Pioneers / Visionaries) – They guide the future, defining strategic direction, purpose, and values. Their role is to inspire, innovate, and drive change.

2. Owners (Stewards / Responsabili) – They care for the present, translating vision into operations, ensuring alignment between mission and daily practices, and serving as bridges between vision and execution.

3. Followers (Contributors / Contributori) – They implement the past, executing plans, contributing creative solutions, and feeding back insights to improve collective learning.

In this model, leadership is horizontal and fluid, allowing individuals to alternate among roles depending on context and competence.
It recognizes that innovation and impact emerge from shared participation rather than centralized authority. The result is an organizational culture rooted in trust, autonomy, and shared purpose, where every member becomes a co-creator of the company’s evolution.

Horizontal Leadership thus embodies the spirit of Enlightened Management, transforming leadership from an exercise of control into an act of collective stewardship — a continuous cycle of vision, action, and renewal that sustains long-term prosperity.

Organizations such as Valve, Gore-Tex, and Patagonia apply horizontal leadership structures, empowering employees to make decisions, self-organize around projects, and co-own the company’s mission. In many Benefit Corporations and SMEs adopting Enlightened Management, teams practice rotating leadership where accountability and creativity are shared.