Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a a response to an opinion piece by James Clawson on leadership. Design/methodology/approach – The paper extracts from the author's managerial and consulting experience. Findings – The paper concludes that the concept of leadership gets in the way of understanding what is really needed to lead; leaders are constantly on stage, and everything they do counts, not just behavioral attempts to “lead.” Numerous dilemmas face all leaders. Practical implications – This paper should help understand the difficulty of most leadership training, and give a new perspective to action. Originality/value – The paper takes a different view from traditional research papers on leadership and points to the heart of the complexities that make it hard to “teach.” It addresses a number of seldom researched or discussed leadership topics.
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