I mean, I think you kinda need to look at historical context too. Traditionally, "leadership" meant managing people pretty much exclusively. What is colloquiall

I mean, I think you kinda need to look at historical context too. Traditionally, "leadership" meant managing people pretty much exclusively. What is colloquially referred to as the "IC route" is a relatively new way of recognizing ancillary responsibilities that employees at senior level start to undertake to "dabble" into leadership, especially if you have the more progressive view that leadership is about facilitating rather than imposing. I think there's still value in EM roles in the sense that I feel that communication about large scale strategy tends to flow more freely among managerial-oriented roles, whereas ICs have a tendency to "silo" more.