Type the word “leadership” into Google and you will get roughly 6.4 billion results. Narrow it to “leadership books” and you are still swimming in 3.5 billion options. Among them are some questionable gems, including two personal favourites:
The Art of Executive Juggling: Work, Life, and Chainsaws and Leadership Lessons from My Cat: Unleash Your Inner Feline in the Boardroom.
If Ian’s old Latin teacher were still alive, he might respond with three simple words: Reductio ad absurdum.
Leadership, like many concepts in modern life, has been stretched, twisted, romanticised, commodified, and trivialised to a point where it risks losing meaning altogether. The noise is overwhelming. The advice is contradictory. The definitions are endless.
So the real question becomes:
What is a simple, practical, and accurate description of leadership today, and how do you act on it?
The Problem with the Infodemic
Leaders today are overloaded with content.
Frameworks, models, metaphors, acronyms, and endless lists of traits all claim to show the way. The result is not clarity but confusion.
The more complicated the conversation becomes, the further we drift from the core of what leadership truly is.
Good leadership is not found in chainsaw juggling or feline wisdom. It is found in practice.
In behaviour.
In impact.
In the ability to bring clarity to others at a time when clarity is in short supply.
A Simpler, More Useful Way to Think About Leadership
In four-part Keynote Season of the Leadership in Chaos podcast, Ian McClean explores this exact question. He breaks down what leadership is, what it is not, and what modern leaders must focus on to remain effective in a world shaped by rapid change and rising complexity.
The episode examines:
- Why leadership definitions have become overinflated
- What actually matters in twenty-first century leadership
- How to cut through the noise and focus on clarity
- How to apply leadership in real, practical ways in an age of disruption
If you want a grounded, accessible definition of leadership that avoids the froth and gets to the real substance, this is the place to start.
Listen to the full episode here.
The Work of Leadership Is the Work of Clarity
True leadership is not about exotic metaphors or bestselling tricks.
It is the daily act of helping people see clearly, think clearly, and move forward with confidence.
The best leaders simplify in a world that complicates.
They create sense in a world that overwhelms.
They take responsibility for understanding their impact.
That is the real work.
Further Reading
Leadership Development Programmes
