Leadership has undergone a quiet but consequential shift. In the push for emotionally intelligent workplaces, we’ve begun to mistake atmosphere for action. Tone now carries more weight than trajectory, and leaders are often evaluated not by where they take us, but by how it feels to be in the room.
The corrective movements of the past decades - emotional intelligence, inclusion, psychological safety - were necessary responses to outdated, authoritarian models. But somewhere along the way, the core function of leadership slipped out of view. You can create belonging without making a single consequential decision. You can cultivate empathy and still avoid responsibility.
The root of the word lead reminds us what has always defined the role: forward motion. Not just how you lead, but that you lead. That you go first when the outcome is unclear and carry the weight when it isn’t popular.
We’ve blurred the line between tone and decision, mistaking emotional fluency for strategic courage. Yet leadership without consequence is performance. To lead is to collapse ambiguity into action, to choose when the data is incomplete, and to own what follows.
That remains the real work.
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