This article discusses solo and distributed leadership. Using the anniversary of "Educational Management Administration & Leadership" as a focal point, it looks back over the last 40 years of "EMAL", using this to frame a wider discussion of the relationship between solo and distributed leadership approaches. It acknowledges other approaches to shared leadership but uses distributed leadership to see how this idea has become part of the rhetoric of both leadership practice and policy. The article then asks what we have learnt from these foci, and where the field might like to look next.