[Image from Pixabay]
Leadership used to be messy, thoughtful, human work. You could spot it in long silences, difficult conversations, and moments of uncomfortable growth. It was never about elegance—it was about effectiveness.
Today? Leadership often shows up dressed for social media—neatly summarised in 7-step templates, accessorised with morning routines and quotes in cursive font. It’s become a lifestyle product. A vibe. A performance.
That was the essence of Satish Pradhan’s recent post, titled The Seductive Simplicity of ‘7 Steps to Greatness. Satish is a thought leader and a fellow contributor on Founding Fuel whom I deeply respect—someone whose writing continues to shape how I think about work, learning, and leadership. His take this time:
“Leadership becomes a lifestyle—a performative state of constant optimisation and vague inspiration.”
Ouch. And true.
In response, I wrote:
“Also begs the question—who made it this way?
Boards, wanting bandaids?
Leaders, craving a formula?
HR, trying to package potential?
Consultants, with frameworks that look good on slides?
Academia, chasing citations over messy reality?
Or TED Talks, with applause timed to the speaker’s smile?
Not a blame game. Just a call to reflect.
If leadership is now theatre—who wrote the script?
And more importantly… who’s still reading the footnotes? :-)”
We didn’t get here overnight. As I wrote in an earlier piece called Decline Creep, these things happen slowly. Then suddenly. We chase simplicity. Then celebrate it. Then sell it. Until the idea of leadership itself is reduced to something you can implement over a weekend with the help of a protein bar and a motivational podcast!
Leadership development is now a global industry worth more than $350 billion annually. That’s more than the GDP of some countries. You’d expect seismic impact. But what we often get is surface-level inspiration and snappy checklists. I call it “pass-me-the-popcorn” programming—entertaining, light, and hard to remember.
So what exactly is shaping this? Here are seven shifts that are now part of the operating system.
1. Everything must be tangible
Leadership conversations are increasingly dominated by what can be measured. “What’s the ROI?” is often asked before “What changed?” And yet, many of the most powerful shifts in leadership show up quietly—in the quality of questions asked, in a pause before reacting, in how a leader makes space for someone else.
I remember a conversation with Vivek Patwardhan, my former boss who was global HR head at Asian Paints. He once asked me, out of the blue, “Why are you happy?” It wasn’t a question that needed to be asked—but it made all the difference. I replied casually, but he sat me down and gently helped me unpack the real reasons behind that answer. My assumptions. My blind spots. And the things that might trip me up in the future. There was no formal setting. No documentation. There is no record of that conversation, except in my memory—and in how much it changed me.
That kind of change doesn’t fit into a report. It doesn’t show up in a pre-post score. But it is the kind of change that matters. The kind that actually stays.
2. We live in a fast-food world
We often expect leadership development to deliver instant results. A few models, a few conversations—and voila, a transformed leader. The pressure to show quick impact has reduced development to bite-sized learning, 10-minute “power modules”, and laminated templates.
At a strategy workshop at a leading management institute, the feedback from senior management who had signed off the programme was: “These people don’t talk like leaders who know strategy.” It was dismissed as ineffective. No “visible” transformation in 48 hours. And yet, two months later, when some participants were presenting their ideas again, it became clear who had thought more deeply. They reflected, rethought, and redesigned how they approached their work. You could hear it in how they spoke. Not in jargon—but in the depth of thought.
Leadership development has a long arc. It isn’t linear. It moves two steps forward, one back. Sometimes, the insight comes long after the conversation is over. Sometimes, the change is invisible—but profound.
But the crux of the problem is this: we are looking at development as though it’s candy. Something sweet and shiny that can be bought for small change. Real development isn’t a transaction. It’s a tension. It requires holding the long view while dealing with the demands of the present.
3.The tyranny of the quarterly result
We’ve built organisations around speed. We want fast results, fast alignment, fast change. But leadership change doesn’t work on quarterly timelines. It spans quarters and careers.
Quarterly cycles demand evidence now. Did the intervention work? Can we see movement? What are the numbers?
But real leadership development resists that clock. It shows up in how people deal with ambiguity, how they step into new roles, how they recover from failure. The impact may be invisible for a while—and then suddenly visible everywhere.
When we evaluate leadership work only through short-term metrics, we risk pulling up the plant to check its roots. And then wonder why it won’t grow.
Better leaders know this. They stay with the work. They invest in conversations whose payoff might be months—or years—away.
4. The obsession with machine-like efficiency
Dashboards can tell you a lot. But they mostly tell you about activity—not development. Just because someone attended a programme doesn’t mean they learned anything. Just because something is logged doesn’t mean it landed.
At Toyota, kaizen (continuous improvement) thrives not because of digital dashboards, but because there is space for people to pause, talk, and rethink. A senior leader in a manufacturing firm once told me, “We’ve got everything—LMS (Learning Management System) tools, templates, trackers. But no real conversations.”
Here’s the thing. It’s not hard to spot development. If you care enough to look, and if you give it enough weight, it’s visible. I’ve seen the best leaders do this beautifully—without needing any tech tools. They start with people, not platforms. They walk the floor, tune into conversations, and observe carefully. They notice who’s thriving and who’s stuck—not just based on reports, but on real, everyday interactions. They make mental notes of who needs a nudge, who’s ready for more, and who needs space.
They take time to listen, even when it's inconvenient. And they do it consistently—not just during reviews or check-ins, but as part of how they lead every day.
5. We’ve unhooked from research
There’s a wealth of thoughtful research on how people learn, grow, and lead. Chris Argyris, an American business theorist and professor at Harvard University, described “defensive routines” that block learning. Edgar Schein, the late MIT Sloan professor best known for his work on Humble Inquiry, reminded us that effective leadership is less about giving answers and more about asking the right questions—and listening with care. In his view, culture isn’t what’s written on the walls, but what unfolds in conversations when status is set aside and curiosity is genuine. Mary Parker Follett, a social philosopher and management thinker, challenged power hierarchies a century ago and proposed more collaborative, integrative forms of leadership.
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, the psychologists behind the Self-Determination Theory, built a compelling case for autonomy, mastery, and purpose as foundations for motivation.
And yet, when it comes to employee engagement, we turn to beer, balloons, and biryani—and think that’s enough.
It’s not just that we’ve unhooked from research. We’ve come to dismiss it as ivory tower stuff. Too hard. Too abstract.
But there is no useful practice without strong theory. We need to stop confusing familiarity with insight. Common sense is not always correct. Reimagining work requires more than opinions. It requires thought. Research gives us tools to think with.
It might take effort to understand it. It might need translation. But that’s not a reason to ignore it. That’s a reason to take it seriously.
6. Deliberate effort on development is seen as optional
Leadership development is still seen by many as a luxury. Something to do when there’s extra time, budget, or permission. It’s seen as an “optional extra”. Something for the high-potentials, the identified successors, the elite few.
But development isn’t optional. It’s always happening. With or without intention. With or without a programme. Every team meeting, every tough quarter, every difficult stakeholder is a developmental moment. The real question is, are we using those moments well?
Patwardhan often said, “Developing leaders is every manager’s duty.” It’s not something that HR does to people. It’s something leaders do for and with their teams. Not through slides or surveys, but through stretch, support, and straight talk.
And yes, this applies in Q4 too. Especially in Q4. Because growth doesn’t pause when targets are tight. If anything, that’s when it matters most. The best leaders don’t wait for ideal conditions. They get to work—with what they have, where they are.
7. Real change happens at work. And it is bespoke
So how do we make this real? We begin by redesigning work itself. Not by bolting on another programme, but by reshaping roles so that challenge is built in. So that reflection isn’t a post-it note after a workshop, but a routine part of the workday.
Redesigning work means giving people room to think, space to speak, and permission to stretch. It means creating feedback loops. It means asking better questions. It means placing learning at the centre—not as a bonus, but as the point.
And it has to be personal. One-size-fits-all approaches often miss the point. One person may need to lead a project solo. Another may need to shadow a peer. Someone else may need to unlearn their assumptions about control.
Bespoke development isn’t expensive. It’s thoughtful. It requires paying attention. And it happens best when work itself becomes the curriculum—and growth is a shared priority.
So, where does that leave us?
The “7 steps to greatness” genre might inspire. But real leadership asks for more. It’s not a product you consume. It’s a practice you show up for.
Leadership is human. Messy. Often slow. And always worth the effort.
I am the traffic
A road safety campaign in Sweden once carried a line I’ve never forgotten: “You are not in traffic. You are traffic.”
It flips the script—from complaint to responsibility.
It’s the same with culture. With leadership. With the way we develop people.
We’re not bystanders. We’re contributors. What we reward, what we tolerate, what we overlook—all shape the environment.
So if leadership development feels hollow, it’s not just the fault of programmes or trends. It’s also in our daily choices. How we treat reflection. How we define results. How we value depth.
We are not stuck in it. We ‘are’ it.
Let’s not give up on the messy, quiet, human work of change. It may not be glamorous. But it’s what actually shifts things.
And yes—let’s still read the footnotes. :-)
