Leaders as Theorists

Research on leadership has long focused on two extremes, either on individual traits (or styles and behaviours) or on relationships and context. We argue that neither extreme explains where leadership originates from or how it produces the collective outcomes it is credited with. We propose a third view that is neither a compromise between nor a variant of these extremes. We argue that leaders are theorists. Leaders are forward‐looking actors who, at any level of an organization, formulate causal theories and frame problems. The value of leader theories is realized, amplified or constrained through social mechanisms. Theorizing is not one activity among many – it is the act that constitutes leading itself. The very factors foregrounded by recent work in leadership (like context, trust, and relationality) are not the starting point of leadership but emerge as leaders advocate, adopt, test, and scale theories. The leader‐as‐theorist agenda is normative and interventionist, highlighting how leader theorizing and causal reasoning can be improved and taught. We close by laying out a research agenda for studying leaders as theorists.