For me, leadership is making a difference. It's using your agency

The words of Melanne Verveer shine with a clarity born of service and conviction: “For me, leadership is making a difference. It’s using your agency to bring about change.” In this declaration, she strips away the illusions of power, rank, and glory that so often cloud the meaning of leadership. To her, leadership is not the throne, the title, or the crown, but the ability to make a difference—to use one’s position, voice, and influence to alter the course of life for others. True leadership, she teaches, is not about control, but about transformation.

At the heart of her words lies the sacred idea of agency. Every human being possesses the power to act, to choose, to lift or to wound, to create or to destroy. But leaders, through courage and responsibility, wield this agency not for themselves but for the common good. To bring about change is the proof of their calling. Verveer reminds us that leadership is not measured by speeches made or honors received, but by the actual fruits of one’s labor—the lives improved, the injustices undone, the light carried into dark places.

History offers us radiant examples of this truth. Consider Harriet Tubman, who, though born a slave, rose as a leader by guiding hundreds of her brothers and sisters to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She held no office, she commanded no army, yet she embodied leadership because she made a difference. She used her agency, her courage and resourcefulness, to bring about change more profound than many kings or generals. Tubman’s story is a living illustration of Verveer’s wisdom: that leadership is measured in impact, not status.

So too in the realm of nations, we see Nelson Mandela, who endured decades of imprisonment in South Africa. When freed, he did not cling to bitterness but chose to use his agency to unite a fractured land. His leadership brought about change that seemed impossible: reconciliation between oppressor and oppressed, the birth of a democracy from the ashes of apartheid. Mandela did not merely sit as a figurehead; he embodied the principle that leadership is to alter reality for the better, no matter the sacrifice it requires.

Verveer’s own life, as a diplomat and advocate for women’s rights, reflects this very creed. She has worked to elevate the voices of women across the globe, not by seeking glory for herself but by laboring to open doors for others. Her words are born of practice: she has seen that when leadership is defined as difference-making, it transcends boundaries of gender, class, and culture. Anyone, with courage and agency, can lead.

The deeper meaning of her statement is also a warning: leadership without change is hollow. A leader who clings to power but does not uplift, who speaks much but acts little, betrays the sacred trust of their role. Authority without transformation is vanity. To be called a leader, one must leave behind traces of healing, justice, or progress—something that whispers to future generations, “This one made a difference.”

The lesson for us is profound yet practical: do not think leadership belongs only to presidents, generals, or captains of industry. Every person has agency, and with it, the power to bring about change—in a home, a workplace, a community. Ask not how high you can rise, but how deeply you can impact. Look around you: where is there suffering you can relieve, injustice you can challenge, hope you can inspire? Begin there, and you walk the path of leadership.

Therefore, O listener, take to heart Melanne Verveer’s wisdom: leadership is making a difference. It is the noble act of using your agency, however small or great, to change the world for the better. Do not wait for crowns or titles; act where you are, with what you have. For the truest leaders are remembered not for the power they held, but for the lives they touched and the light they left behind. Go, then, and lead by making a difference.