Melancholic Leadership

In the world of leadership, a subtle yet powerful phenomenon often goes unnoticed: melancholic leadership as Simon Western* calls it. This isn’t about individual sadness but a collective melancholy, where leaders draw on a sense of social or cultural loss, rallying support through an unacknowledged nostalgia for a bygone era. It’s particularly common in family businesses, where leaders are often deeply attached to founding ideals or charismatic figures who defined the company’s early identity.

In these family-run enterprises, current leaders often cling to original values and traditions, resisting adaptation even as markets and realities shift. Rather than embracing new directions, they seek to “make the company great again,” attempting to recreate a “golden age” that can ultimately hold the organization back.

In its most dangerous form, melancholic leadership fosters paranoia, projecting blame onto perceived “outsiders” who are seen as obstructing a return to this idealized past. This misdirected nostalgia can easily escalate, as seen in the rise of nostalgic political narratives in the U.S., where certain groups are cast as threats to a romanticized version of America.

The remedy? Recognizing melancholic leadership is the first step. From there, leaders can create spaces to “mourn” these unprocessed losses, allowing them to design a future that honors the past while embracing the world as it could be, rather than what it claims to have been. Only by rooting their vision in resilience—rather than nostalgia—can organizations and nations alike forge a truly constructive and sustainable path forward.

(*) Western, S., & Garcia, E-J (2018). Global Leadership Perspectives: Insights and Analyses. Sage Publications.

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