It’s not every day you get Regina George’d in real life.
But there I was — standing across from a male colleague, book in his hand, wide-eyed, and blurting out:
“I had no idea… but you’re really smart.”
Cue the invisible Oscars speech:
“I’d like to thank the Academy, my publisher, and all the people who underestimated me along the way…”
This wasn’t just a casual comment.
It was a slow-motion collision between outdated leadership stereotypes and the reality of modern leadership.
Context:
I had given him a copy of Meerbott’s Fables — my book of leadership transformation stories disguised as playful parables.
Honestly? Given our wildly different political, social, and demographic backgrounds, I assumed the book would end up gathering dust on his desk.
Instead?
He read it five times.
He said it reshaped how he thought about leadership, people, and growth.
But the backhanded cherry on top?
It wasn’t just my ideas that impressed him.
It was the fact that I — a woman who didn’t fit his mental image of a “traditional executive” — could have authored something so impactful.
Translation:
“You didn’t fit the mold I expected… and now I have to rethink everything.”
And that’s precisely the point.
Breaking the “Smart Leadership” Myth
Despite all the corporate chest-thumping about inclusion and innovation, many leaders still unconsciously associate “executive intelligence” with one outdated image:
Male.
Middle-aged.
Conservative-looking.
Polished within an inch of their humanity.
If you don’t show up in the “approved uniform,” you’re often categorized as “nice,” “cute,” “emotional,” or (even worse) invisible.
And here’s the disruptive truth that most leadership coaches won’t tell you:
Leadership transformation today demands a different kind of intelligence.
The kind of intelligence that isn’t earned by clocking 80 hours a week or having a Stanford MBA.
It’s the intelligence of:
- Systems Thinking: Seeing the invisible architecture that creates visible results.
- Emotional Intelligence: Building loyalty, trust, and resilience faster than strategy decks ever could.
- Cultural Fluency: Reading the room and knowing when to break (not follow) the rules.
- Courageous Curiosity: Asking better questions instead of clinging to outdated answers.
It’s not about looking smart.
It’s about thinking differently.
It’s about leading soul-first, not ego-first.
And spoiler alert:
That’s the future of modern leadership.
Not just for women but for everyone.
Why It Matters to You — the Leader Who Wants to Win
If you’re a founder, executive, entrepreneur, or someone scaling a high-growth company — hear me loud and clear:
The biggest threat to your success isn’t competition.
It’s unconscious bias.
If you can’t recognize brilliance in a package that doesn’t match your mental template, you’re going to miss out:
- On the next breakout idea.
- On the next market shift.
- On the next cultural tidal wave that you didn’t see coming, it crushed your bottom line.
Competent leadership today is about catching genius before the market does.
And that means dismantling the outdated reflexes about who looks “executive enough,” “leader enough,” or “smart enough.”
Final Thought (and a Challenge)
The next time you catch yourself surprised by someone’s intelligence, creativity, or leadership insight…
Don’t congratulate yourself for noticing.
Ask yourself:
“Why didn’t I expect it in the first place?”
Because that’s where your real leadership growth lives.
Not in reading another management book.
Not in attending another workshop.
But in unlearning the invisible biases that keep you (and your company) small.
Kelly Meerbott is an award-winning leadership coach, executive strategist, and author of Meerbott’s Fables. She specializes in building resilient, high-performance leaders through emotional intelligence, cultural transformation, and leadership coaching that sticks.
Ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about leadership?
You can just book your complimentary leadership coaching session here.
