Whatif… Leadership is practiced, not promoted? (Theme: Unlearning Leadership)

Leadership.

We often talk about leadership as an elevated status. A particular role. A title. It comes with authority. It might come with more compensation. More visibility. More decision rights.

But that’s just power and status. And power and status are not the same thing as leadership.

Somewhere along the way, we began to equate leadership with promotion. With recognition. With finally being “in charge.”

But what if leadership is much simpler than that? What if being a leader is simply about being willing to do the hard thing, even if that doesn’t immediately come with recognition?

Leadership is having the courage to say to your team, “Can we pause and reconnect? We seem to have lost our way.” Leadership is saying, “Thank you.” Not performatively. Not because it’s strategic. But because it’s deserved. Leadership is stepping up and doing the crap work no one else wants to do (not assigning it to someone you subconsciously deem “less worthy”). Leadership is quietly calling out bad behavior, not to shame someone, but to interrupt a broken pattern. Leadership is asking the uncomfortable question. Admitting you were wrong. Choosing integrity when silence would be easier.

None of these require a title. They require courage and a willingness to step into responsibility.

The reason we often avoid these moments isn’t because they’re complicated. It’s because they’re costly. They threaten our ego. They risk being misunderstood. They make us visible in ways we may not control. And when they don’t come with an immediate extrinsic reward, it is easy to say “I’ll wait”. 

So we wait.

“I want to be a leader.” We wait for the world to deem us worthy of the title. We wait for the promotion. We wait for someone else to give us authority.

But leadership isn’t something you are granted. It’s something you practice. It’s something you become each time you choose the harder right over the easier wrong. Leadership as status is about climbing. Leadership as character is about standing. Standing steady when a conversation needs to happen. Standing up when someone is dismissed. Standing in the discomfort of your own growth.

If we continue to equate leadership with money, visibility, and authority, we will keep overlooking the people who are quietly holding teams together. The ones who repair instead of react. The ones who ask better questions. The ones who do the work without demanding credit.

Let’s start calling those people leaders. Not because they have a title. But because they are willing.

Maybe the world doesn’t need more people who want power. Maybe it needs more people who are willing to do the hard thing in the moment it matters. And then, let’s grant those people power, after they’ve successfully demonstrated courage, a willingness to step into responsibility, and an ability to connect with people to solve problems.

Whatif… Leadership is less about power and more about character?