Is “Leadership” one of the buzzwords of the present era? The word “leadership” is used so often and in such broad and vague ways that it feels like it’s everywhere, especially in academic and professional settings.

The seeming universal emphasis on leadership and leadership qualities captured my attention relatively recently. I must admit that my attention shifts to this when a leadership style/leader seems deviant from my ideals of a leadership/leader. While part of this interest appears to be from my own evolution and experiences with titled “leadership” roles, I believe mainly it is from my observation of the broader societal shift with ever increasing emphasis on leadership across life span — from preschool to graduation and from early career to retirement. 

So, what is leadership?

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, leadership is the capacity to lead. To lead means: to guide on a way especially by going in advance or to direct on a course or in a direction.

Recently, I read two books: “Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic and What We Can Do About It” by Jennifer Breheny Wallace and “The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance” by Zach Mercurio.

At first, they seemed unrelated, but turned out to be closely connected, to the topic of leadership and the multilayered theme of “what matters (most)”. Both, in their own different ways, explore what happens when achievement and mattering are out of sync. With constantly changing demands of our lives and disappearing availability of time for true self-reflection and soul searching, these readings offered some answers and shed some light to my speculations about the ever-increasing “hunger” for more… And in this context, ever increasing hunger for more “titled” leadership-as if it were just another box to check!

Let me share a couple of takeaways from these books. Never Enough discusses how select but dominant components of our society value and reward toxic competitiveness to achieve (specific kind of) success from the formative years.  This is the kind of success/achievement which is the widely accepted standard of our time. The Power of Mattering discusses role of leadership/leaders in creating culture of making people feel significant, needed and mattered.

This is NOT to say that traditional success or achieving traditional titled leadership roles is wrong or inherently toxic. Rather arriving to this achievement via self-centered and toxic competitiveness to be reassessed. This is significant because this value system creates a schism among communities, as the rest of those who may not follow this trend or can’t keep up with the “Never Enough” culture may suffer the consequences, may feel left out as insignificant or may be treated as they and their achievements don’t “Matter”. 

In my rather simplistic view—coupled with these readings—I view leadership in roughly two broad categories, with the understanding that there is much variability that falls in between. However, for me, the distinction lies in the proportion of predominant features of one category or the other. These categories are:

• Traditional Leadership (with formal title)
• Non-Traditional Leadership (with or without formal title)

Traditional leadership (and leader), with formal titles is a mainstream or widely accepted standard of leadership. This category could be occupied by either a traditional or a non-traditional leader. In my view a traditional leader is usually someone who strives to fit almost perfectly into the dominant mainstream frame with characteristics & practices (conscious or unconscious) such as:

• Surface level charisma (versus courage)
• Playing it safe and avoiding risks
• Being Politically correct
• Echoing dominant views, reinforcing biases and hence,
• Supporting culture of insignificance, silence and unfairness
• Promoting self

Non-traditional leadership (and leader) on the other hand, is almost opposite of the above. This is a leadership style and a Leader with characteristics & practices (often conscious and intentional) such as:

• Courage (with or without charisma)
• Appropriate risk taking
• Speaking up when most stay silent
• Promoting significance and mattering for all, not just the dominant few
• Creating space for marginalized and overlooked
• Modeling ethical conduct
• Practicing integrity, honesty and thoughtful fairness

However, regardless of category, leadership & leaders don’t exist in isolation. As I continued to ponder, I realized that my observations and speculations are as much about followership and collaboration, as they are about leadership. There must be engaged followers and collaborators for a leader to have a meaningful impact, no matter how noble or ignoble. 

Ultimately, I believe leadership is about social responsibility — to oneself and to others. Leadership is not only about guiding others but ensuring that people feel valued and significant. This responsibility is shared by all of us, whether we find ourselves leading, following or collaborating though often all at once. 

To put all this together, perhaps we need to reconsider the meaning of success and achievement from the formative years onward, so to create leaders who, in turn, cultivate a culture of significance and mattering. This is only possible when we value the “person” not only the person with the “title”.