Stop calling it leadership when it's self-abandonment.
Boundaries are not the opposite of leadership. They’re what keep you from losing yourself in slow motion.
I've been thinking about how easily we take innovative, effective corporate concepts, exaggerate them to the nth degree, and inevitably realize this is why we can't have nice things.
Take servant leadership.
Somewhere along the way, a useful concept got dragged through the corporate swamp and turned into a moldy little lie:
The best leaders are the most available, most accommodating, most self-sacrificing, and most willing to absorb nonsense with a smile.
So those leaders who answer emails at 9:47 p.m. “to set an example?"
The ones who say yes to every meeting, every favor, every fake emergency?
The ones with an open-door policy where every “quick question” can become a 40-minute emotional hostage situation, and that's somehow reasonable???
These people are not Oddball Leaders — they are just people who are allowing self-erasure.
If this kind of content resonates with you, I write all about Oddball Leadership every week!
No spam, no corporate jargon. Just real leadership, observed in slightly (or very!) strange ways. 😎😎😎
Let me say this plainly about leading without boundaries:
