Naming — Rethinking Leadership

In plain terms

Naming is the act of calling something what it is — and, where the name is performative rather than descriptive, of bringing into being what it names. Calling someone a leader does not report a fact about them. It makes one.

What the chapter argues

From the abstract to Chapter Three: Naming
This chapter examines “naming” as one of the most basic ways in which narrative constitutes leadership. Drawing on Austin’s idea that words go beyond description to actually “doing” things, it argues that naming someone a leader casts them into a role, installs a hierarchy, and opens a hero slot around which others become followers.
… The chapter shows a drift towards this language that naturalises hierarchy and, by celebrating individualism, makes it harder to see conflict and collective resistance.

From the book

A black-and-white photograph of a woman in a light coat breaking a bottle against the bow of a large ship on a shipyard slipway, watched by a group of dignitaries on a viewing platform. — Queen Juliana of the Netherlands christens the *Koningin Wilhelmina* at the De Merwede shipyard, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, 30 May 1959 — a real instance of Austin's own textbook example of a performative utterance: “I name this ship…” Photograph by Herbert Behrens for Anefo. Nationaal Archief, the Netherlands. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Related concepts

Terms you will meet in this chapter, kept in the author's vocabulary:

Performative utterance
The hero slot
Semantic drift
Collocation
Leader and manager
Followership
Individualisation
Naturalised hierarchy
Substitution test

One short example

A question to sit with

Take a sentence from your own organisation that uses leader or leadership. Substitute manager, colleague or group. What changes, and who loses standing when it does?

Where to go next

This lens is developed in Chapter Three: Naming.

Status: the abstract above is quoted directly from the manuscript · surrounding text is site-written · author review required