Preface

The bookshelves of the world abound with books on leadership. Authors of diverse backgrounds serve up a steady stream of titles that inspire admiration and imitation of the examples set by great leaders. And yet, despite all this, many still strain against the yoke of bad leaders, toiling pointlessly toward uncertain goals and wondering, “When will things be different?”

We think there are two problems with most literature on leadership. First, focusing on the behavior of great leaders gives little insight into how leadership develops. We rarely see their uncertain early steps, the difficult choices and circumstances that led them to make different choices, or the price they paid for choosing a different way. We see the leader-hero in their maturity, haloed in myth, but never as the stumbling student or the uncertain professional taking their first steps toward the person they later become.

The other problem with the cult of the leader-hero is that it overshadows the daily acts of leadership that make progress possible. Leaders are not superheroes. Leaders, in our view, are everywhere. Or, rather, opportunities for leadership are everywhere, waiting to be seized.

We don’t think that leaders are born with some special qualities that make them great leaders. The great leaders with whom we have worked are regular people who care deeply about helping others to achieve shared goals, and who have had the good fortune to have had experiences that have shown them a different way to lead people. We believe that leadership is a learned response to challenges in the world, and that everyone can lead at different points. To meet the challenges in our complex world, we, in fact, need everyone to lead at different times.

This book is about how people learn to embrace their leadership potential, how they let go of their preconceptions about what leaders do, and how they learn from each other how to work together to reach a better future. Our goal is to share what we have learned about what leaders do, how they think, and, most importantly, how they got there. We hope it helps you in your own leadership journey.

—Ron, Kurt, and Laurens

April 2022