The Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) was established in 1998 and is organised and delivered by two (previously three) consortia comprising a partnership model with universities and local authorities. SQH participants are encouraged to adopt a distributed style of leadership in taking forward their School Improvement Project. Currently, SQH participants are exposed to some of the "big ideas" within the distributed leadership literature but there is an expectation that participants ground theory in their own practice and in the contextual practice of their schools. This article describes a research that explores the experiences of the first cohort of participants graduating from the revised SQH programme at the University of Edinburgh. Findings of this study imply that SQH participants encounter a range of tensions in trying to take forward a "distributed leadership perspective" in leading school improvement initiatives. (Contains 2 tables.) (Contains 2 tables.)