For 15 years, I had a front-row seat to leadership at the highest level. I worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos during Amazon’s most explosive growth years in the early 2000s. I reported to Eric Schmidt as he scaled Google into a global force and product suite now embedded in our daily lives. These weren’t just jobs—they were masterclasses in decision-making under extreme pressure, scale, and scrutiny.
Since then, I’ve spent nearly a decade advising fast-scaling startups and global executives, helping them navigate growth, innovation, and complexity. And after these nearly 30 years working with some of the world’s most powerful leaders, I’ve come to a clear conclusion:
Most of what we believe about elite leadership is wrong.
Worse than that—it’s dangerous.
The Leadership Myth Holding Us Back
We’ve created a cultural myth around what it takes to be a successful leader, especially in tech. We glorify the “unicorn CEO” – brilliant, bold, eccentric, sometimes ruthless – and assume they possess a rare kind of genius gifted to them at birth.
That myth convinces too many talented people that leadership isn’t for them. If they’re not loud, forceful, tireless, or risk-obsessed, they hesitate to step up. I’ve seen it again and again: founders who think they don’t fit the mold, executives who burn out trying to emulate it, and teams suffering under its weight.
Let me be clear: you don’t need to be a genius or a jerk to lead.
Leadership is not magic. It’s a learnable combination of curiosity, self-awareness, discipline, vision and a willingness to consistently go through hardship in service of a greater goal. It’s the ability to build systems that elevate others. And most importantly it’s the choice to lead on purpose. Is it difficult? Yes. Is it accessible? Also yes.
We need a new kind of leadership; one that’s not defined by bravado, but by impact, integrity, and vision.
The Future of Leadership Is Distributed
We can’t afford to keep worshipping lone geniuses. We need more people, not fewer, stepping into leadership at every level.
That includes:
- Founders trying to scale with intention
- Mid-level leaders managing distributed teams with care and purpose
- Professionals reinventing their careers in a world of constant change
- Public sector changemakers working toward a more just and functional system
- Advisors, educators, coaches, and investors helping others rise
The leadership models that got us here won’t get us where we need to go. We must move beyond the myth of the visionary founder as the sole architect of success and embrace distributed, accountable, and values-driven leadership.
Leadership isn’t reserved for a few—it belongs to anyone willing to learn, stumble, evolve, and lead with purpose.
My mission is to democratize success. That means handing over the playbooks. Equipping more people with the tools to lead well. Redefining what it means to be powerful in a world that desperately needs more humanity, not less.
The future of leadership is more collaborative, accountable, and purpose-driven. It’s not about being the loudest in the room. It’s about creating the systems, cultures, and momentum that allow others to thrive.
-Ann
Ann Hiatt is a trusted consultant and advisor to Fortune/FTSE 100 CEOs as well as to rapidly scaling companies trying to disrupt them. She is a Silicon Valley veteran with 15 years of experience reporting directly to CEOs Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Eric Schmidt (Google/Alphabet), Ann is a weekly contributor for Harvard Business Review and her bestselling book, Bet On Yourself, was published by HarperCollins in 2021.