For decades, organizations have defined “good leadership” through the language of competencies. They build models that specify what leaders should know, say, and do – how to give feedback, how to manage conflict, how to make decisions. These models create consistency and a sense of fairness. They make it possible to assess, promote, and design training programs.
But competency models also do something else, something unintended. They imply there’s a single, correct way to lead. They teach people to manage leadership rather than to manifest it.
Early in a leader’s journey, managing is essential. New leaders need guidance, structure, and standards. They need to understand how to set expectations, how to hold people accountable, how to ensure that work gets done safely and ethically. Managing performance is the foundation of effective leadership.
As leaders mature, they discover that management alone doesn’t inspire excellence or adaptation. When environments change, when uncertainty rises, when teams face complex and ambiguous challenges, leaders can’t rely on checklists. The competencies that once provided confidence start to feel confining.
This is the turning point where leadership matures, when it shifts from managing performance to manifesting purpose. When early-career leaders focus on managing performance, they tend to emulate their role models. When leaders mature, they need to connect who they are to how they lead, that might mean reframing competencies as foundational, not aspirational.
From Competencies to Conditions
Manifesting purpose means creating the conditions in which people and organizations can thrive. It’s not about whether leaders have mastered the right behaviors; it’s about whether their leadership is producing the right organizational climate.
Think of leadership outcomes not as what leaders do, but as what people experience when leadership is working as intended.
- Do people understand how their work connects to a larger purpose?
- Do they feel safe to raise concerns, take risks, and innovate?
- Do they see decisions being made transparently and collaboratively?
- Do they believe their contributions matter?
If those conditions exist, leadership is functioning. If they don’t, it isn’t – regardless of how well a leader performs against a competency checklist.
And who is best positioned to determine whether those conditions exist? Not the leader’s manager. Not an HR algorithm. The people being led. The most direct way to know whether leadership outcomes are being achieved is to ask the people impacted by them.
There’s No One Right Way to Lead
Every organization’s strategy calls for different conditions. Every team’s context is unique. And every leader’s personality, history, and strengths shape how they bring those conditions to life.
Organizations exert control by establishing structures. Yet when it comes to professional development, there’s no one right way to lead. If we’re not careful, we can end up treating leaders like widgets on an assembly line. Competency models turn into quality assurance standards, and facilitating leadership workshops feels like teaching to the test.
What organizations really need are leaders who can translate purpose into experience. Some will do that through storytelling and inspiration. Others will do it through systems and structure. Still others through empathy, inquiry, or relentless problem-solving. What matters isn’t the method, it’s what the method manifests.
Rethinking Leadership Development
If organizations want leaders who manifest purpose rather than just manage performance, their development practices need to evolve. That means shifting from competency-based instruction to outcome-based reflection.
Instead of asking:
“Has this leader demonstrated effective communication?”
Ask:
“Do people on this leader’s team feel informed, heard, and aligned?”
Instead of designing programs to improve discrete skills, design experiences that help leaders experiment with new ways of creating the conditions their teams need. Replace competency assessments with outcome conversations. Replace one-size-fits-all workshops with real-time reflection, feedback, and coaching tied to strategic outcomes.
The question isn’t whether leaders know what good leadership looks like. It’s whether people around them can feel it.
