Teacher leaders have long been relied upon to help schools run smoothly and efficiently. Public schools have found an increase in the need for teachers to step into leadership roles to assist administrative teams in implementing policies. Many schools have turned to distributed leadership as a way to give teachers more of a voice in schools and to increase teacher involvement. However, smaller schools and districts do not have formal tracks for teachers who wish to become leaders. The problem addressed by this study was that many districts underutilize distributed leadership practices, which results in a lack of teacher leaders, especially when there is no formal leadership program implemented. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of both teacher leaders and teachers who are not leaders through the lens of distributed leadership. Ten teacher participants and one administrator participant were interviewed in this study. All 11 participants were employed by a rural school district in a public high school setting. Each participant was interviewed three times using a semi-structured interview format. Interviews were transcribed; the data was then coded and categorized into themes to answer the two research questions. Results from this study indicated that administrators should personally invite more teachers more often to participate in leadership opportunities, teacher leaders should be encouraged to encourage other teachers to pursue more leadership roles, and small school communities should use extra duty volunteers to increase teacher leadership participation. Future researchers should seek a better understanding of the way teachers perceive invitations from administrators to participate in leadership opportunities. A broader research study could also be useful in understanding the influence teacher leaders have on teachers who are not leaders, and their decisions to undertake leadership responsibilities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]