Conversations as Leaders

Is Narrative More Powerful than Personalities in Distributed Work?

We spend billions of pounds a year training people in leadership. Most of what we teach centres on them as individuals and their behaviours. We have a very “person-centred” understanding of how we lead.

This seems a little odd when, increasingly, in most workplaces, we see those leading us less and less frequently. Our connection to them becomes ever more distant, digital, and detached and that tendency is increasing as AI becomes more integrated into workflows already dominated by process, and the personal profile of the leader becomes increasingly blurred to those being led.

So what is left?

What we are often left with is a digital ghost of the leader, a breadcrumb trail of emails, internal marketing, policy statements, public appearances, and social media often written by other people on their behalf. Short of a major issue involving the leader, they are defined by the clarity and tone of their narrative - and yet little attention is paid to that.

Leaders who will appear and promote v…