Leadership Writing Has Lost the Plot

Scan any bookshelf or LinkedIn feed and you’ll find the same recycled slogans:

“Lead with empathy.”

“Put people first.”

“Culture eats strategy.”

They sound nice. They sell books. But they don’t prepare anyone for the real job of leadership.

The problem isn’t that these statements are wrong — it’s that they’re shallow. They don’t touch the difficult, messy, unglamorous parts of leadership that determine whether a team thrives or unravels.

What Leadership Narratives Ignore

If writers really wanted to help leaders, they’d shine a light on issues like these:

The Weight of Trade-Offs

Leadership is choosing between two imperfect options—knowing either way, someone loses. The skill isn’t in “making bold decisions.” It’s in managing the bruises those decisions create. Why aren’t we talking more about that aftermath?

The Silence Around Leaders

The higher you go, the quieter it gets. Not because people suddenly adore everything you do, but because they’ve learned it’s safer to keep their mouths shut. The real challenge isn’t “giving people a voice”—it’s creating a culture where voices are actually heard.

The Power of UGRs

Posters, values, and slogans don’t shape behaviour. The unwritten ground rules (UGRs) —what people believe is “the way we do things around here”— do. Yet leadership commentary rarely explores how those rules form, or how leaders accidentally reinforce the wrong ones.

The Toll of Consistency

Inspiration is easy. Consistency is hard. Leaders aren’t judged by their best moments; they’re judged by whether people know what to expect from them on an ordinary Tuesday.

The Mundane Nature of Courage

Courage isn’t the rousing keynote. It’s calling out the toxic high performer. It’s admitting you screwed up. It’s having the hard conversation you’ve been dodging. Writers should stop glamorising courage and start normalising it.

Why This Matters

When leadership is reduced to hashtags and soundbites, we set leaders up to fail. They enter the role expecting inspiration; they end up drowning in complexity, conflict, and contradiction.

And here’s the kicker: that gap—between the story we tell about leadership and the reality leaders live—creates cynicism. Among leaders themselves, and among the people who work for them.

Where We Should Be Focusing

Instead of another book of slogans, let’s demand writing that tackles questions like:

• How do leaders rebuild trust when it’s been broken?

• What do you do when your best performer poisons the culture?

• How do you balance transparency with the reality that some things can’t be shared?

• How do you notice—and shift—the unwritten ground rules driving your team’s behaviour?

These are the conversations that make leadership real.

Final Word

Leadership isn’t poetry for coffee mugs. It’s a job that requires courage, clarity, and a tolerance for discomfort.

The people who write about leadership need to stop selling slogans and start equipping leaders for the messy reality of the role. Because that’s where the real work—and the real value—lies.