Sometimes, I believe we live in a slow-motion state, where everything we say has already been articulated inside our minds at a speed we can’t comprehend. It’s like those split-second decisions when you swerve to avoid an object while driving. You just do it.

I’m writing a new book, titled Leadership as a Verb the same as this publication. There have been periods when I’ve written nothing and others when I’ve written a lot.

So far, I’m enjoying the process and the pace. It’s almost the end of the year, and I believe I have another six to seven months to go before I start revising and have a book ready to publish.

One thing that has happened often is the amount of writing I’ve discarded sometimes 50 pages. After rereading, I didn’t like it at all.

Some friends have suggested I hire a ghostwriter or use ChatGPT to write the whole book.

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But I don’t believe that’s me.

I think, like anything I do, there’s a legacy in it. What’s the point of putting something out there that I haven’t worked on myself? To sell it and make money? To boost my expertise?

Because having a book is a great achievement?

It’s true that books contain tremendous knowledge in condensed form. They’re a great way to experience other lives or imagine them in your own mind.

With this book, I don’t want it to be just another feel-good guide or a prescriptive take on leadership. There are others better suited for that. Yes, it will reflect my personal view of leadership, but it’s also a message a raw, human experience. I can’t tell you how many leadership books I’ve read, only to feel like I’m reading the same book over and over again.

I want it to bring something to the reader, to let their imagination run free and learn from it. To empower. It’s like climbing a mountain you don’t hire someone else to do it for you and then claim the summit when you reach it.

It reminds me of some founders who claim ownership of creating an electric car brand, when in reality, it was a hostile takeover. We somehow revere these figures and forget that many unknown people make our world go round.

When it comes to AI, I use it to correct my grammar and for research. To me, LLMs are nothing more than a way to query a database, delivering output in natural language. Yes, this is an oversimplification, but I keep it that way to remind myself that I’m not interacting with a sentient being. It also helps me avoid the trap of thinking, Why not use it to write the whole book so I can relax and enjoy life?

I believe writing is a unique and irreplaceable expression of ourselves. I used to browse Amazon for new books, only to find ones clearly written by AI. Writing 300 pages in a month is possible, but the amount of junk out there is staggering. Fortunately, I’ve trained myself to research and spend time learning about authors.

Just like exercising, our bodies remember “muscle memory.” When we pause and return, it’s as if the body remembers, and everything flows smoothly. The same goes for writing. If I don’t write it myself, how can I remember what’s in the book? The struggle of coming up with ideas, the effort to write a single page, or the satisfaction of writing a lot only to discard it all after revision.

I love it when I go for a run and ideas suddenly flood my mind. I used to wish I had a pen and paper, only to forget later. Now, I run with a pen and paper. People might think I’m crazy when I stop to jot down ideas, but I’ve also trained myself to remember things. By the end of the day, I sit down, and all those ideas come easily. It took me years to get here.

Just as it took me years to start writing seriously. I spent too much time dreaming and wishing. Maybe those years were necessary to bring me to this stage.

For me, writing is an experience. The act itself is deeply appealing. I don’t imagine it becoming a bestseller or making me a millionaire. If that happens, it happens. I just want to write and keep writing.

I write a lot on Substack, but I had to pause because it was interrupting my book writing.

I’m not a native English speaker, and English isn’t my first language, but writing has improved my ideas, my writing in English. I’ve bought books on how to write a book, grammar, building environments, and developing characters all great resources.

At first, I made it so hard for myself. I thought I needed to know everything before I could start writing. While I believe you do need to understand a lot about the process to prepare mentally and develop your own style, it’s also a battle against deadlines, patience, and socializing. It’s a solo adventure a marathon, really.

But it’s amazing how our brains can generate ideas, tie them together, and make sense of them. Truly, the brain is an incredible organ, and the power of collective endeavor is awe-inspiring.

By the end of the year, I hope to share with my readers where I am with the book and maybe even some pages.

Thank you

Diamantino Almeida

Leadership as a verb. Tech | Writer | People

I found that even some small thing can impact our focus and writing.

I’ve defined a particular outline to help organize my ideas and give some structure to my writing. But today felt like one of those days when writing just wasn’t going to happen.

Still, instead of giving in to the urge to do nothing a decision I know I’d regret later I chose to do some research.

The title is Leadership as a Verb, so I went back to basics.

I started reading about what a verb is, the many interpretations of leadership, human psychology, and what drives us to act collectively. And also remember and put in paper some of my experiences.

I’m always amazed at how, in ancient times, people managed to build such monumental structures. The level of precision involved is astounding.

I imagine the motivation and coordination it took for people to work together to raise such wonders.

Many of these structures are now underwater, hidden beneath forests, destroyed, or buried under newer civilizations. And yet, we continue to rediscover what we accomplished as a collective species.

These readings and searches made me realize something important, yes, we often designate individual leaders, but real progress happens when leadership is shared.

Like in a football/soccer match each player takes on a leadership role in their position.

Together, they may win or lose, but the real value lies in how deeply they understand each other. Were they in “flow”? Did they almost sense what their teammates would do next?

There’s this deeply rooted idea that only a few can be leaders we see it in politics, corporations, and institutions. And yet, the current state of global affairs makes me question that idea more than ever.

With politics seemingly driven by individuals whose actions often show little empathy or even respect for the people they claim to represent, I keep asking: How did we let these kinds of people rise to power?

Whenever dictatorship finds its way into our lives, it is shared leadership collaborative partnership that eventually brings it down. History repeats itself: we unite to achieve a shared goal, time passes, and a few take that goal for themselves. Then we find ourselves fighting again, reclaiming our liberty from the hands of tyrants.

It makes me think: perhaps the real power isn’t in the individual, but in the collective.

…just got interrupted here…

Apologies, my daughter who’s sitting next to me called for my attention. She was proudly showing me her Minecraft LEGO set, carefully explaining what each character was doing in the scene she had built.

After she walked me through her little world, I asked her, “What do you think leadership is?” She’s nine.

She paused, thought for a moment, and said, “It’s someone who guides others... someone like a politician or someone important.”

I smiled and replied, “You’re a leader too. Every decision you make is an action. When you’re with your friends at the playground and you all decide together what to play, that’s shared leadership. Sure, sometimes one person might try to get their choice picked, and maybe they’ll push really hard to convince everyone.”

Then I asked, “What do you think happens when someone pushes so hard, they start yelling, trying to force everyone to do what they want or else they’ll get upset or say they won’t be friends anymore?”

She looked at me and said, “That’s a very naughty thing to do. I think we’d all feel sad if someone acted like that. Dad, isn’t that what a bully does?”

I pointed at the TV, and I said “someone like that?” and a certain politician was yelling as usual about how great his ideas is and how the tariffs will make a better world… Yes, Dad, she replied.

I told her. “Sometimes kids haven’t learned how to manage their emotions yet, so they use shouting or threats instead. And when that happens, it could be just immaturity. But if it keeps happening if it becomes a pattern you have to raise your alert. You don’t need to fight back. Sometimes it’s best to ask questions and understand why they’re upset. But if that doesn’t work, it’s okay to walk away.”

She nodded quietly, thinking it over. Then she went back to building her LEGO scene modeling a world where everyone gets to play a part, one brick at a time.

This particular moment made me realize leadership is many things a parent, a coach, a president, a mine worker, a DevOps engineer, an activist, a writer, and so much more. It embodies countless aspects, yet somehow, in all the leadership courses and workshops I’ve attended, the human side often gets lost in the noise of frameworks and checklists.

At its core, leadership is about getting along. Yes, processes help us create structure, but rigid rules rarely survive the reality of change. Adaptability, that willingness to bend and flow with the moment that’s what leadership truly demands.

Leadership is just a word, one we load with meaning to capture decisions, journeys, and dreams. It’s multifaceted and, like “productivity,” often feels diluted by apps and buzzwords promising a 10x boost.

Even a sheep pastor is a leader.

Yet, we measure leadership by the status of a role. Is that right or wrong? I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is this, shared leadership feels right. It feels human. It feels like the future.

And now it seems I got something to write about especially for the introduction.

READ NEXT…

Thank you.

Diamantino Almeida

Leadership as a verb. Tech | Writer | People

I really must find them.

Although many years have passed, some ideas have lingered and evolved. My dreams somehow stitch unrelated fragments onto one stage; the human brain truly is marvellous at that.

The impulse for this book grew out of another manuscript I drafted many times called A Stateful Journey. In it, I played with the idea of leaving a trail of history behind, learning from it, and knowing when to let go the stateless side.

Yet something always felt missing. A few years ago, through my leadership work and after observing hundreds of managers, I realised I was the odd one out.

While others dismissed empathy and pushed a stricter brand of leadership, I kept asking why we tolerate so much pain and power-play for so little reward.

This is very common, because the nature of businesses is making money and sometimes, we need to rush things to put something out there.

Now “empathetic leadership” is fashionable, perhaps scarred into us by the COVID era, but I still see more aggression than compassion in many boardrooms, even if some voices champion a more humane future.

This book is my argument that everyone can lead and that leadership is not a title but an action, a collaborative effort. Titles matter when control matters—our society needs structure—but I fear we are surrendering our agency while waiting for a saviour.

We place our hopes in a chosen few and follow one. Ancient texts echo that pattern: kingship, divine right, authority cloaked in justification to sway the masses. Leader has become almost synonymous with man.

A bit about me, and what you can expect. Like you, I am stepping into somewhat unknown territory, I have the experience of writing books, but any new one feels like it.

Writing publicly is a way to hold myself accountable and invite feedback, because a book may start with one person but many people shape it—helping ideas take a clear, orderly form.

I’m considering doing a few live or recorded sessions where I write parts of the book in real time. It could be a great way to share my thought process and spark some discussion.

Professionally, I’ve been managing people in tech for a long time, and I’ve experienced the good, the bad, and everything in between. I love technology, but I sense that the current wave of hype, the tech-oracle culture, is crushing people. Certain leaders hide themselves behind the excuse of efficiency, afraid to show what they really are.

Money is such a weird argument.

But I don’t believe technology is the real problem.

At the heart of our challenges is us the people making decisions every day. Some good, others bad. It all depends on your moral compass.

I believe the brain is a wonderful “machine” that proves what collective leadership can do. Millions of neurons, supported by other organs, work together to sense and guess the world beyond. We have grown so adept that what we perceive guides us, even if reality itself may lack a single true form.

I will share my plans, my blocks, and my frustrations. Writing a book is solitary work, a mental duel with pride and legacy. I want to leave a message for my children, family, and friends a legacy. Not another best seller.

I try to understand why leadership has been polished into an emblem of feel-good productivity, as if we live in a Disney-fied world where all ends well. People forget that some leaders paid a harsh price to leave us warnings that still resonate across the ages.

Leadership is a collective effort.

Leadership as a verb, this might not be the optimal way of doing “leadership”, but joint effort seems to be the most correct one, with all its pros and cons.

I hope you enjoy this journey and become part of it.

When the book finally takes shape, a piece of it will belong to you, too.

READ NEXT…

Thank you.

Diamantino Almeida

Leadership as a verb. Tech | Writer | People

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