Built In: 11 Essential Leadership Qualities for the Future of Work

Indeed, it’s high time for a “rebranding” of leadership and strength, said Gianna Biscontini, a behavior analyst and author of F*ckless: A Guide to Wild, Unencumbered Freedoms, a guide for women to shed societal expectations. “We discuss strength and leadership though a primary lens of white, heterosexual and male, which silos giant subsets of individuals, including women, away from leadership roles,” she said, noting that qualifiers such as “black CEO or “female CEO” signal such executives as aberrant. 

“That’s not a great look for leadership in 2022, where nearly every research article shows that diversity in gender, background, thought and race is key to creativity, innovation and organizational success,” Biscontini said. 

Strength and its traditional connotations of force and coercion, “perpetuates the archaic view of strength and leadership and prevents us from moving in a more human-centered, progressive and effective direction,” Bisconti said. Because of the upheaval of the last several years, “we are now starting to perceive acts of authenticity, vulnerability, compassion, humility, and emotional maturity as strong,” she said. “We must also continue to build a society that rewards this behavior in all individuals, not only for the health of companies, but for the health of society.”