Collaborative innovation processes need to be supported, guided, and led (e.g., Bason, 2010). Most empirical studies in the organizational literature have found positive relationships between leadership and the performance of public organizations (e.g., Knies et al., 2016). Educational literature acknowledges the vital role of school principals in creating suitable conditions for innovation processes and in leading these processes (Bush & Glover, 2014;Fullan, 2007Fullan, , 2016Hallinger & Heck, 2010). School principals can build organizational climate and culture, trust, and collaboration (Daniëls et al., 2019). Leadership is commonly defined as individuals exerting influence over others to structure activities and relationships, knowledge, and skills (Daniëls et al., 2019;Yukl, 2002). It is argued, mostly theoretically, that leadership of collaborative innovation is essentially distributive, horizontal, and adaptive, and that leaders need to respect the self-regulating character of collaborative innovation processes. Thus, in relation to collaborative innovation, there are limits to the enactment of traditional leadership theories based on command and control (Angelle, 2010;Ospina, 2017).A growing body of literature acknowledges a crucial role of distributed leadership for successful innovations in schools (