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I saw a post on LinkedIn this morning, either from someone in my network or something they commented on, and now I can’t find it again, thanks Algo.
It was about the disconnect between what we want to write and post about online and what we actually do. A dilemma many of us have felt, especially if you straddle different disciplines, HAVE a variety of interests, or are resisting being flattened into one “role” or “niche,”
gave a wonderful admission of this feeling I have felt many times in her essay I (re)read this morning, “Maxwell’s Demon,” where she explored applying thermodynamics principles to economic and systemic change:
It’s an excellent essay posing some great questions, with insights that only come from having the curiosity of knowing just enough to see patterns across disciplines, please go read it. This brings me to the concept of leadership as a vocation.
As I’m catching up on a backlog of reading, I came across this quote in the article “How Rosalía’s formal training gave her creative freedom” :
“When the vocation requires self-expression, no singular interest will ever be able to contain the totality of what the self seeks to express. Categories fail to hold at the boundaries of exploration.”
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What makes someone a leader, really?
Not the checklist of traits, responsibilities, and narratives, but what lies beneath all that? What is the subtext? What makes leadership a vocation, rather than a byproduct of it?
We all know the usual answers of what makes a leader: they are visionary, empathetic, inspiring. But those are ideals, not identities, and they’re not reserved for people in formal leadership roles, nor are they bound to specific industries.
Is it a refusal to be flattened?
A willingness to explore out loud, even when it doesn’t “align” with what an organization or system wants to address?
Maybe vocation is a focusing of self-expression as an act of relation, rather than performance?
Perhaps leadership as vocation, not position, is an emergent state at the intersection of someone’s curiosity, complexity, and obsession.
A crossroads of authenticity that, when others arrive at it, begins to shape the space around them. When the way the leader lives in alignment and reciprocity invites something to grow in others.
I think it’s hard to argue against the fact that, for better or worse, the self-expression of those who choose leadership as a vocation is 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 from how they lead.
Those who draw from across art, science, language, movements, and culture, not just their “industry,” and use the intersections between disciplines to push the boundaries of our understanding rather than reinforce their limits, are often the ones whose presence ripples out the furthest.
I don’t have a clean definition. I’m not sure I want one. But I do know this is the kind of inquiry I will keep returning to in my work: leadership as a relational stance, not a title.
What about you? Do you see leadership as a vocation, or a role?
Until next time,
- Chris
Welcome, and thank you for your presence!
I am a leadership ecologist rooted in Appalachia, raised through environmental respect, military service and Western educational institutions. I use an animistic lens to better understand the relationship between individuals, organizations, and systems.
When working with leaders and organizations, my approach not one of doctrine, but of guidance and tending to: to memory, to culture, to systems and people. I believe leadership is not a fixed role, but a living, relational practice.
My work draws from my lived experience and research into myth-making, insurgency and business strategies, regenerative philosophies, creative works, the landscape I inhabit, and the mundane, because the ember of humanity is often nurtured in and between those spaces.
If something resonates, leave a comment, or reach out to chat - I always love hearing people’s stories.
You are always welcome to book a free call to either get fresh perspective or see if we’d work well together in cultivating your capacity to lead.
I offer a variety of services, 1:1 coaching, group programs, leadership training development, and culture consultation.