Kamal Ghorui
I have coached leaders who can negotiate billion-rupee deals, handle crises with a straight face, and command rooms full of sceptics. Then, in the next breath, they confess something quietly human: “If I am not the one speaking, I feel irrelevant.”
That sentence is not about strategy. It is about wiring.
The podium is not just a physical stage. In leadership, the podium is any position where your visibility is guaranteed and your importance feels confirmed. It is the meeting where everyone looks at you first. The WhatsApp group where your message becomes the final verdict. The off-site where your voice takes centre-stage and the room relaxes because the “real adult” has arrived.
And yes, it can become addictive.
The podium is a mirror, not a microphone
Most leaders think they are addicted to influence. They are often addicted to reflection.
When you stand at the centre, people’s eyes act like mirrors. They show you an image of yourself that feels larger, cleaner, more certain. For a few minutes, the messy inner world quietens.
This is why a leader can be outwardly calm and inwardly restless. The podium temporarily resolves the restlessness. Not because it solves the problem, but because it distracts from it with attention.
If you are wondering whether this is “just psychology”, it is also neuroscience. The brain learns quickly what soothes discomfort. And it will repeat whatever works, even if it costs everyone else.
Ego is not the villain. Identity confusion is.
Let us stop moralising ego. Ego is not evil. Ego is simply the part of you that says, “I exist.” It is the boundary-maker. The identity-keeper. Without it, you would not function.
The trouble begins when leadership becomes the only identity you trust.
I have met leaders who do not know who they are without being needed. They do not feel fully alive without being consulted. They have built an identity that relies on external confirmation, and the podium becomes the daily dose.
This is why stepping back can feel like death. Not professional death, psychological death. If your identity is fused with being the “main person”, then empowering others feels like erasing yourself.
That is not leadership. That is fear dressed as responsibility.
Dopamine does not care about your values
Dopamine is often misrepresented as the “pleasure chemical”. It is more accurate to call it the “seeking chemical”. It spikes when you anticipate reward and when you receive signals that you are winning, wanted, or safe.
A podium offers all three.
Applause, praise, rapid compliance, even mild intimidation can stimulate the reward system. The brain marks it: repeat this. Over time, leaders can become dependent on the emotional hit of visibility. They may not describe it as addiction, but their behaviour will.
They will insert themselves into every decision. They will dominate discussions “for efficiency”. They will correct people publicly “to maintain standards”. They will keep the room slightly dependent, because dependence feels like proof.
This is how performative leadership is born. Not from evil intent, but from a rewarded pattern.
The Indian context: A culture that worships the loud
In India, we have a complicated relationship with authority. We criticise power and also romanticise it. We complain about domineering bosses and also teach our children that the loudest adult is the final authority.
We have an entire social ecosystem that rewards being “larger than life”. The politician, the celebrity, the godman, the boss. The more dramatic the performance, the more we confuse it with importance.
So it is no surprise that podium addiction in leadership thrives here. Many leaders are not only rewarded by their companies. They are rewarded by society’s script.
Here is the uncomfortable question: are we building leaders, or are we building performers with access cards?
The hidden cost: Your team becomes smaller in your shadow
A leader addicted to the podium may still be intelligent and hardworking. That is what makes this trap dangerous. The leader can look successful while slowly shrinking the team.
When leaders take up too much space, teams learn helplessness. They stop bringing ideas. They stop disagreeing. They start waiting. Initiative becomes risky, because the leader’s presence makes autonomy feel like rebellion.
I once coached a leadership team where the CEO spoke first in every meeting. He believed he was “setting direction”. But direction became a ceiling. After a few months, nobody challenged him. Not because they agreed, but because they were trained out of honesty.
When I asked a senior manager privately, “What do you really think?” she said, “It does not matter. He likes his own answers.”
That is the tragedy of podium addiction. The leader keeps getting louder, and the organisation keeps getting quieter.
The yogic lens: Rajas, tamas, and the hunger to be seen
In yogic psychology, rajas is restless energy. It moves, desires, pushes, conquers. It is not bad. It builds empires. But unchecked, it becomes agitation that must constantly feed.
The podium feeds rajas beautifully. It gives motion, stimulation, identity, and a sense of control.
Quiet leadership, on the other hand, demands sattva. Clarity, steadiness, discernment. The capacity to pause without panic.
Many leaders avoid that pause because silence brings them face-to-face with themselves. And if you have been using the podium to outrun your own insecurity, silence feels like a trap.
The exit door: How leaders break the reward loop without losing power
The solution is not to become invisible. The solution is to become intentional.
A leader breaks podium addiction in leadership by learning to separate usefulness from importance. You can be important without being central every minute. You can be useful without being loud.
This is where the distinction between leading from the front and leading from behind becomes a genuine leadership practice, not a slogan. I explore this deeply in Power Without The Podium: Leadership from the Front vs Leading from Behind, because the mature leader knows when to step forward for clarity and when to step back for capability.
When leaders step back, two things happen. The team grows, and the leader’s nervous system protests. That protest is the withdrawal symptom. Treat it as data, not drama.
If you can stay with that discomfort, you stop needing applause to feel real. You start leading from presence.
A coach’s closing question: What are you really chasing?
If you feel a sting reading this, I am not here to shame you. I am here to offer a mirror.
Ask yourself: when you take the podium, what do you get that you are not getting elsewhere?
Respect? Certainty? Love? Relief from loneliness? Proof that you matter?
Your honest answer will explain your leadership style more than any personality test.
The world does not need fewer leaders. It needs fewer leaders who are addicted to being seen. Because when leadership becomes a craving, organisations become feeding grounds, not communities.
And the strangest part is this: the more you chase the podium, the more fragile you become without it. Real power is not announced. It is embodied.
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