Leading vs ‘Leadering'
Hey bosses, here's a tip: being a real leader is not the same as acting like one. Don't try to take all the credit—just focus on getting the job done.
Whenever something big succeeds—like a company, a team project, or even a country—people always ask: Who made it happen? The truth is, it usually takes lots of people working together. But most of us like stories with heroes, so we pretend that one person did it all. That's why people say things like 'Steve Jobs made Apple great' or 'Newton discovered everything'—even though these people had help.
Some people don't just wait for credit—they grab it! Take Donald Trump, for example. He once posted that he stopped a war between India and Pakistan (even though that's not fully true). He also bragged that other countries were 'kissing up' to him over trade deals. He acts like he's the star of every story—even when other people are doing most of the work.
This kind of behavior has a name: 'leadering.' A smart blogger named Venkatesh Rao came up with it. Leadering means jumping into something that's already happening and acting like you made it happen.
Rao also says even real leadership is often about luck. For example, Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo, and for a long time people said it was because the British were smart. But scientists now say that a huge volcano in Indonesia may have changed the weather in Europe, making the battlefield too muddy. So maybe Napoleon just got unlucky with the rain!
True leaders don't hog the spotlight. They give credit to others and focus on making things work. If your school, team, or company has one of these people in charge, that's awesome!
But if your leader is more about showing off than doing the work… that's trouble. In fast-changing times—like now, with AI, electric cars, pandemics, and global conflicts—you need someone who knows what they're doing. If not, things can go badly, fast.
And while Trump may like attention, at least he doesn't seem eager for war. But some people go looking for fights—just to seem powerful. That kind of 'leader' is the most dangerous of all.
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