Not everyone should be a leader, and that’s a good thing

(This article first appeared in People Matters)

For over a decade, the corporate world has echoed one feel-good mantra:

“Everyone is a leader.”

You’ve seen it on onboarding decks, leadership programs, and LinkedIn posts. It sounds inclusive, empowering and, frankly, misleading. Let’s get honest. Leadership isn’t for everyone.

Not because people aren’t capable but because true leadership demands something deeper than competence. It demands character, courage and clarity. The willingness to take the harder path when it’s easier to conform. And that’s a path many aren’t prepared for, and that’s okay.

Just as not everyone is meant to be a pilot, surgeon, or monk, not everyone is meant to carry the ethical, emotional, and psychological burden that leadership requires. And romanticising leadership as something anyone can or should do does a disservice to both individuals and the institutions that depend on them.

The myth of skill-based leadership

Modern leadership development has reduced leadership to a toolkit of observable behaviours: candour, empathy, strategic thinking, and presence. All these behaviours are useful but hardly sufficient. 

What we’re often teaching is how to act like a leader, not how to become one. You can’t fake conviction, and you can’t simulate inner clarity. And when we focus only on behaviours, we risk producing performers – professionals who can signal leadership in public but crumble in crisis. What’s missing is the foundation – not external skill, but internal alignment.

“Before you lead others, you must learn to lead yourself.”

The forgotten discipline: Self-leadership

Self-leadership is not about ambition or productivity hacks. It’s about who you are when no one is watching.

• Do your actions match your values?
• Can you stay centred in complexity?
• Are you able to watch your ego rise and not let it rule you?

Most people are handed leadership tools before they’ve developed the inner architecture to hold power responsibly. That’s why we see smart, talented professionals struggle when they rise: the foundation was never built.

And this is where ancient Indian wisdom offers a sharper lens than most modern models.

Enter Dharma: The inner compass of real leadership

In Indian thought, Dharma isn’t just duty — it’s the right alignment. It’s the integration of intention, action, and integrity.

Dharma is:

• Knowing your role and showing up fully in it.
• Choosing the harder right over the easier wrong.
• Saying no when it’s easier to say yes and yes when it’s uncomfortable to do so.

Dharma is the invisible layer of leadership. You won’t find it on a resume, but you’ll feel it in someone’s presence. It’s what guides decisions in moments where no playbook applies. It’s what holds a leader steady when there’s no external applause.

“Leadership without Dharma is performance. Leadership with Dharma is presence.”

And make no mistake: Dharma isn’t soft. It’s often lonely. It requires saying and doing things that will be misunderstood. But it’s the only path that builds real trust, not just admiration.

Why this matters now more than ever? 

In a time of global complexity, stakeholder pressure, and cultural volatility, the world doesn’t need more people trying to “act like leaders.” It needs fewer, deeper individuals who’ve done the inner work to live in alignment and lead from that space.

If we continue to push the idea that everyone is a leader, we dilute the weight of what leadership actually is. We confuse participation with responsibility. And we burden individuals with expectations they may not be prepared or called to carry.

Instead, let’s tell the truth:

“Leadership is a path. It’s not for everyone. But for those who choose it, Dharma must lead the way.”

Let’s stop handing out crowns. Let’s start honouring the discipline of leadership for what it truly is: not a universal birthright, but a conscious commitment – to self, to truth, and to the people we choose to serve.