Written by Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
When Leadership Becomes Theater
In 2024, Google acknowledged that the soaring energy demands of its AI operations helped ratchet up its corporate emissions by 13% last year and that it had backed away from claims that it was already carbon neutral. Similarly, BP scaled back its renewable energy goals in 2023 before ditching them altogether this year, with new CEO Murray Auchincloss saying the company had gone too far too fast. These reversals often received far less public attention than the original announcements, illustrating a pattern where the spectacle of commitment overshadows the substance of follow-through.
This scenario illustrates a troubling evolution in modern leadership. The elevation of public messaging over substantive action. Across both democratic politics and corporate boardrooms, we are witnessing the rise of performative leadership, a style that prioritizes the appearance of decisive action over the resilient, often invisible work of actually solving problems.
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