We’re living in an era where leadership has become an aesthetic. Scroll through social media and you’ll find it: direct eye contact, fast-paced dialogue, and confident poses. Leaders, we’re told, should be assertive but vulnerable, polished yet relatable, visible but authentic. The algorithms reward people who push to be front and center, not always the ones who lead from their values.
Reena Merchant rebels against this narrow definition of leadership. As a seasoned UX leader in the tech industry, Reena has spent over two decades managing teams at Google, YouTube, Sony PlayStation, Citrix, and BlackBerry. She’s also the founder of OurVoice, a platform that empowers people to reconnect with their authenticity and self-expression. Her journey has been shaped by unraveling the belief that leadership needs to look or sound a certain way.
“I used to think I had to be louder to be taken seriously,” Reena shares. “Especially as a woman in tech, I felt like I needed to perform leadership in the way I saw it modeled around me. Aggressive, commanding, and controlling. But that wasn’t who I was.”
The Role of Social Media in Our Perception of Leadership
This pressure to conform isn’t unique to tech; it’s pervasive across industries. Before social media, it was magazines, TV, and films. But with social media, the pressure to fit a mold is now on a 24/7 loop. We’re bombarded by idealized images of success, leading us to constantly compare ourselves to often unattainable standards. This perpetual comparison can erode self-esteem and create a sense of inadequacy among aspiring leaders who don’t fit conventional norms. Furthermore, the constant exposure to hyper-curated examples of what it means to ‘lead well’ can make us feel that being authentic isn’t enough.
How Reena Merchant’s Personal Story Shaped Her Leadership Philosophy
From a young age, Reena navigated multiple definitions of culture and identity. In high school, she moved from Canada to study in India, then eventually returned. These transitions during formative years shaped her deeply, inviting her to grapple with belonging, self-expression as an outsider, and connecting across cultural divides. She learned early that experience shapes identity. Returning to Canada, she felt how profoundly she’d changed, and had to recalibrate to what once felt familiar.
Starting her professional career brought another layer of complexity. Her first role in user experience was fast-paced and high-pressure, dominated by assertive, mostly male personalities. As a young woman new to tech, Reena tried to find her footing by adopting the traits she saw celebrated around her: speaking more forcefully, masking vulnerability, and projecting an image that wasn’t fully her. But instead of feeling empowered, she felt disconnected. Like a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit. She knew external success wasn’t the path to fulfillment and craved a way of being that felt internally aligned with her true self.
It wasn’t a single moment that changed her trajectory, but rather a slow and steady building of courage—the kind that grows quietly over time. Reena began to notice that when she dropped the performance and embraced her natural leadership style, something shifted. She felt more congruent. And others responded. Her calm presence and authentic transparency created spaces where people felt safe to open up, collaborate, and innovate.
Reena is the first to say this journey isn’t linear. There wasn’t one breakthrough moment followed by endless confidence. Instead, it was—and still is—a daily practice. The daily courage to be who you are. While the challenges didn’t disappear, she became more resilient. There were moments when she was passed over for promotions and told she wasn’t aggressive enough for leadership. In those moments, she leaned into her inner resolve, allowed space for self-doubt, and chose courage again and again. Over time, she realized courage is the prerequisite to authentic self-expression, and that coming home to herself was the real measure of leadership.
“When I finally stopped trying to mimic what leadership was ‘supposed’ to look like and trusted my voice instead, everything started to click,” she shares. “The most successful and fulfilling moments of my career have come when I allowed myself to show up fully as I am.”
What surprised her most was how this shift unlocked a bigger vision. With clarity and conviction, she launched OurVoice, a platform that empowers individuals to reconnect with their authenticity and self-expression. She also developed the Leadership From Within framework, which offers a new model for leadership rooted in empathy, alignment, and inner truth.
And perhaps most importantly, Reena finally felt at home in her own skin—not in spite of who she is, but because of it.
Coming Home to Yourself
Reena’s story begs a question for all of us:
When was the last time you looked in the mirror and realized you weren’t being fully yourself?
In an age of algorithms and aesthetics, authentic leadership is an act of quiet rebellion. It’s choosing to lead with empathy when aggression and control are expected. It’s deciding that your values matter more than conformance. And it’s trusting that real influence isn’t found in how loud you are, but in how deeply you listen, to yourself and others.
The truth is, that leadership was never meant to be one-size-fits-all. And the world doesn’t need more performant personas. It needs more real ones. So the next time you question whether you’re too soft, too quiet, or too different to lead, remember Reena’s journey, and ask yourself:
What would it look like to lead from within?
Because maybe the version of leadership you’ve been searching for isn’t out there—it’s already inside you, waiting to be trusted.
