Perspective
What Changes When We Treat Leadership as Art?
By
Arts & Business Institute
What does a leadership decision make possible for other people? The question can disappear behind targets, deadlines and the pressure to deliver. Bringing it back into view is a useful starting point for thinking about the relationship between leadership and the arts.
A recent contribution to the debate
In an essay published online on 10 August 2026 in Academy of Management Learning & Education, INSEAD’s Gianpiero Petriglieri argues for understanding leadership as art. His account connects personal intention, relationships and the shaping of culture. This is a conceptual argument, not an experimental evaluation of arts-based training.
The ABI perspective
For executive learning, we see an opportunity to examine the distance between a leader’s stated purpose and the experience of the people around them. A strategy may promise collaboration while its meetings leave little room for disagreement. A transformation may promise autonomy while every decision still requires permission. Looking closely at those contradictions makes leadership tangible.
An organisation could begin with one ordinary decision: who speaks first in a meeting, how a mistake is discussed, or whose knowledge is consulted. Ask participants to describe what happened before explaining what they intended. Comparing those accounts creates material for reflection without assuming that everyone saw the same event in the same way.
A question to take into practice
Choose a decision you made this week. What would someone affected by it say it revealed about your priorities? Where their answer differs from yours, what would you change?
Sources and further reading
Read Gianpiero Petriglieri’s essay
