Definition of Leadership: Why the Catalyst Leader Is the Future

If you ask ten people to define leadership, you’ll likely hear ten different answers. For some, it’s about power or authority. For others, it’s about influence or achieving results. But after decades in the business of developing leaders, I’ve learned something fundamental: most definitions of leadership are stuck in the past.

I learned this lesson early in my own career. My first boss was brilliant at driving results but lacked interpersonal skills to connect with people. I watched as morale on the team plummeted, innovation slowed, and even the strongest team members disengaged. That experience lit a fire in me to understand what truly great leadership means and to dedicate my life to helping others become better leaders than the ones they’ve had.

So, what is leadership?

At DDI, we define leadership as the ability to catalyze others to achieve more than they thought possible, sparking growth, trust, and energy across an organization.

This definition is the foundation of our modern leadership philosophy, and it centers on the concept of the Catalyst Leader, a leader who doesn’t direct or control but ignites energy and motion in others.

Why Most Leadership Definitions Fall Short

If you Google “definition of leadership,” you’ll find millions of answers. Many sound impressive, but they fall short of what organizations truly need. They tend to center on hierarchy, decision-making, and metrics. Those are pieces of the puzzle, but they miss the human spark that drives people to bring their best selves to work.

Leadership isn’t about control; it’s about setting the stage for people to do their best work together. It’s a social achievement born from understanding, aligning with, and inspiring others toward a shared purpose.

And yet, many leaders today are struggling to create these conditions. Trust is eroding, stress is mounting, and organizations are facing a crisis of leadership effectiveness. It's time to redefine what leadership means and what leaders must become.

The Catalyst Leader: DDI’s Definition of Leadership

A Catalyst Leader is someone who sparks action in others, creating energy that mobilizes teams. These leaders aren’t driven by authority or ego. They’re driven by purpose, and they ignite that same sense of meaning in those around them.

Two essentials define Catalyst Leaders:

1. Deep engagement in their leadership role. They don’t view leadership as a promotion—it’s a privilege and a calling.
2. Energizing others through trust and inclusion. They know that when people feel seen, valued, and empowered, performance follows naturally.

Curious what that looks like in action? Rather than viewing this as a self-assessment, think of it as a side-by-side comparison between how leaders typically show up versus how Catalyst Leaders lead with intention, inclusion, and energy.

Catalyst Leadership in Action: How Great Leaders Show Up Differently

These are the daily differences that define Catalyst Leaders. They don’t just manage, they ignite action, creating momentum that spreads through teams and entire organizations. 

This people-centered approach might sound soft, but it actually drives stronger performance and results. Don’t just take my word for it—Google found the same thing. In its landmark internal study, Project Aristotle, the highest-performing groups shared one thing in common: psychological safety, created by leaders who listened, trusted, and inspired their teams to take risks and grow. And that’s the essence of Catalyst Leadership, leadership that proves you can be both kind and highly effective. Leaders will always need to do hard things, such as giving feedback or managing conflict. But when you use the behaviors of a catalyst leader, everything runs more smoothly—from daily collaboration to difficult conversations—because trust and engagement are already built into how the team operates.

Traits of a Catalyst Leader

Catalyst Leaders embody the traits that modern organizations need most. They model the behaviors that build trust, energy, and momentum.

• Whole-person approach: They lead with authenticity and empathy, recognizing the human behind the job title.
• Growth mindset: They see both success and failure as opportunities to learn and improve.
• Inclusion every day: They create belonging not as an initiative, but as a habit.
• Empowers and mobilizes others: They unleash potential rather than hoard control.
• Listens deeply: They ask questions before giving answers.
• Builds trust: They lead through transparency, fairness, and follow-through.
• Adapts quickly: They respond thoughtfully to change, not reactively.
• Creates networks: They know leadership doesn’t happen in isolation.
• Energizes teams: They inspire shared purpose and collective momentum.

As simple as these behaviors sound, they’re the difference between compliance and commitment.

Why Organizations Need Catalyst Leaders at Scale

Having a few great leaders in an organization isn’t enough. Catalyst leadership energy has to spread across all levels. According to Gallup, only 21% of employees are engaged, and manager engagement has dropped, highlighting the critical role of leadership clarity and energy. 

The Global Leadership Forecast 2025 further validates this trend:

• Trust in immediate managers has collapsed from 46% in 2022 to 29% in 2024—the lowest we’ve seen in more than a decade.
• 71% of leaders say their stress has significantly increased, and 40% have considered leaving leadership altogether.
• Only 20% of organizations feel confident in their leadership bench.

When Catalyst Leadership takes hold, it creates a ripple effect, energizing not only individuals but the entire organization. Trust grows, engagement rises, and innovation accelerates.

But here’s the catch: a leadership philosophy alone won’t change your culture. Words like “empowerment” and “trust” sound great on posters, but they mean nothing unless leaders live them out daily.

From Philosophy to Practice: Making Catalyst Leadership Real

If you’re hinging your strategy on a leadership philosophy alone, it probably won’t work.

Philosophy without practice is like a spark without oxygen—it fades fast. Catalyst Leadership is different because it turns values into visible, coachable actions. It’s a common leadership language that every person in your organization can understand and apply.

When we partnered with AtkinsRéalis, they faced a familiar challenge: transforming their leadership culture globally. Through the Senior Leadership Development Program, they didn’t just define leadership; they operationalized it. Leaders learned how to actually inspire trust, delegate inclusively, and coach with confidence. As a result, they built stronger collaboration across regions and saw measurable impact: 49% of participants were promoted, lateral moves increased by 30%, and women’s participation in the program more than doubled—from 19% to 41%.

That’s the power of Catalyst Leadership: it’s not theory. It’s a system of behaviors that grows with leaders at every level—from frontline managers to senior executives to organization-wide transformation. And when organizations adopt this approach, they stop searching for a handful of “star leaders” and instead build systems that empower every leader to act as a catalyst.

How to Develop Catalyst Leaders

To develop Catalyst Leaders, you can follow a clear, evidence-based approach:

1. Self-Insight

Begin by building deep self-awareness—the mirror every great leader needs. Catalyst Leaders understand their strengths, areas for improvement, and impact on others. This awareness fuels empathy, emotional intelligence, and personal growth.

2. Core Skills

Build the everyday capabilities that create trust and results: communicating with clarity, coaching with empathy, and delegating in ways that develop others.

3. Practice

Turn learning into action: Catalyst Leaders don’t just absorb ideas; they apply them. Through deliberate practice, feedback, and reflection, skills become second nature and confidence grows.

4. Act and React

Strengthen agility in the moments that matter most. When facing a crisis or uncertainty, pause, reflect, and respond with purpose, balancing composure with speed.

5. Feedback

Create a continuous loop of growth. Invite feedback from peers, mentors, and their teams, and use it to adjust, improve, and inspire others to do the same.

It’s not about one perfect program. It’s about building a living ecosystem where leadership growth happens every day, at every level.

The Definition That Defines the Future

Leadership is catalyzing others to grow, trust, and achieve more together.

But defining leadership isn’t just an academic exercise—it’s a business imperative. When organizations can't clearly define leadership, leaders can't clearly lead, resulting in confusion, misalignment, and wasted potential. Given the challenges of today’s business environment, it’s easy for leaders to slip into command-and-control tactics that no longer work, leading to disengaged teams, missed targets, and high turnover. And in today’s competitive business environment, you can’t afford that.

You need Catalyst Leaders across your company—leaders who ignite growth, build trust, and energize others to do their best work. Because when every leader becomes a catalyst, performance soars, cultures thrive, and your organization becomes unstoppable.

It’s time to embrace a new standard of leadership and build a generation of Catalyst Leaders who bring that definition to life every day, in every interaction, and across every organization.

Discover why the Best Practices for Leadership Development are the difference between defining leadership and actually living it. 

[TACY'S BIO HERE]