Organizations depend on teams for their success, and as information technology (IT) capabilities have improved they have increased their use of virtual teams. Virtual teams allow organizations to dynamically adjust to changing needs, but present unique leadership challenges. There is currently little theory on how leadership works in virtual teams and few studies that provide empirical evidence for the ideas that have been advanced. This study reports results gleaned from a two-week collaboration project undertaken by a large team using an array of IT capabilities in a distributed virtual environment. It found support for key ideas espoused in models of shared leadership and captures lessons that could be useful to practitioners.