Your leaders are boring. Here’s how to fix them.

Ever wondered what stand-up comedians, Esports influencers, and professional wrestlers have in common with workplace leadership?

Probably not. But stay with me.

A while back, I found myself in a wrestling ring, attempting to become a professional wrestler. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work out. But what I learned in that process—and in my experiences with stand-up comedy and Esports—has completely reshaped how I think about leadership, engagement, and the way we work.

At DisruptHR Minneapolis, I shared these stories and explored what businesses can learn from industries that have nothing to do with HR or corporate leadership.

If you’d rather read than watch, keep scrolling—I’ll take you through it all right here.

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The wrestling ring: what leadership training gets wrong

In January 2023, I signed up for an eight-week wrestling intensive with two guys, Zak and Roy. They weren’t corporate trainers. They had no leadership certifications, no e-learning modules, and no fancy slide decks.

And yet, within eight weeks, they transformed my behaviour.

I went from a total beginner to stepping into the ring under the persona Kheng Kong. In a short space of time, I developed confidence, discipline, and a completely new set of skills—not because I sat in a classroom, but because I was learning by doing.

Compare that to how we train leaders in the workplace.

Most organisations take a slow, theoretical approach to leadership development. They load people up with slide decks, send them through an LMS, and expect that to translate into effective leadership. But wrestling—just like real leadership—is about behaviours, not knowledge. You don’t become a better leader by reading about leadership; you become a better leader by practising leadership.

So why do we overcomplicate it?

When I stepped into that ring as Kheng Kong, I wasn’t just wrestling—I was learning how to perform under pressure, communicate clearly, and work as part of a team. That’s what great leadership training should do.

We don’t need more PowerPoints. We need more real-world, immersive experiences that push people outside their comfort zones and force them to develop leadership skills in a natural, high-stakes environment.

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Stand-up comedy: why your leaders are boring (and how to fix it)

Stand-up comedy has changed dramatically over the past 10–15 years.

It’s no longer just about making people laugh. Comedians now use their platform to inspire change, tackle difficult conversations, and challenge societal norms. Whether it’s gender, race, identity, or politics, stand-up comedians shape how people think and feel.

Now, compare that to corporate leadership.

Think about the last all-hands meeting or town hall you attended.

Did the speaker inspire you?
Did they engage you?
Or did they, like most corporate leaders, deliver a lifeless monologue that left you counting the minutes until lunch?

Corporate leadership has forgotten how to inform, entertain, and inspire.

The standard approach—putting a senior leader on stage with a slide deck and asking them to talk for 30 minutes—is broken. The audience tunes out. Eyes glaze over. No one remembers what was said.

And yet, great stand-up comedians captivate audiences for hours.

How?

1. They tell great stories – They don’t rely on bullet points; they craft narratives that engage their audience.
2. They read the room – They adapt their delivery based on audience reactions.
3. They create an emotional response – They make people feel something—whether it’s laughter, joy, or deep reflection.

Now imagine if corporate leaders did the same.

Imagine if they treated their speeches like a performance—not in a theatrical, over-the-top way, but in a way that prioritised storytelling, emotional engagement, and real human connection.

Leadership isn’t just about strategy and execution—it’s about inspiring followership. And that means learning from industries, like stand-up comedy, that have mastered the art of audience engagement.

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Esports: the leadership model we’re ignoring

Esports is one of the biggest industries in the world, yet most business leaders still don’t take it seriously.

It grosses more than music. It grosses more than film. And it’s shaping how an entire generation thinks about leadership and community.

The best Esports influencers don’t just play games—they build massive, highly engaged followings. They use platforms like Discord and Twitch to create vibrant communities, where people feel connected, invested, and part of something bigger.

Now, think about how leadership works in most organisations.

We promote someone into a leadership position and assume that their job title alone will earn them followership. But that’s not how leadership works anymore.

Great leaders don’t just manage people—they build communities.

And that’s what Esports influencers do better than anyone.

• They create authentic, two-way engagement with their audience.
• They build loyal followings through shared experiences.
• They lead without hierarchy—people follow them because they want to, not because they have to.

And they do all of this in a digital environment—which is something corporate leaders have struggled with since remote work became the norm.

During the pandemic, businesses realised that traditional leadership skills didn’t always translate to virtual settings. In a remote-first world, leaders need to learn from Esports influencers, content creators, and digital community builders—because they’ve already cracked the code on how to engage, inspire, and lead people at scale.

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Time to disrupt the way we lead

We don’t need more leadership frameworks.
We don’t need more theoretical training.
We need a fundamental shift in how we approach leadership development.

Because right now, most organisations are designing leadership for a world that no longer exists.

The next generation of leaders won’t succeed by commanding authority—they’ll succeed by building community.

They won’t inspire followership through position alone—they’ll do it by mastering storytelling, engagement, and digital influence.

And they won’t learn these skills from HR training modules—they’ll learn them from the real world.

So let’s stop looking in the same places for answers. Let’s start learning from the industries that already know how to engage people at scale.

It’s time to rethink leadership.

And if we do it right, maybe—just maybe—we can make work a little less corporate and a little more human.