This chapter explores the potential to see emotions as more fundamentally connected to the leadership purpose; as more definitive of leadership identity; and as a well-spring of guidance and direction. Thinking of emotions as something to be ‘reinserted’ into the workplace, something to be ‘performed’ rather than just felt or listened to, or as a ‘component’ of practice rather than something integral and holistic has often resulted in a mechanical or reductionist research stance. In economics, homo economicus, or economic man, is the concept underpinning many theories portraying humans as consistently rational and narrowly self-interested agents who usually pursue their subjectively defined ends optimally. Closer to home for leadership scholars has been the development from ‘scientific management’ and ‘command and control’ leadership to ‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘leadership as emotional labour’, but even here the progress has been slow and has yet to break the bounds of its rational ancestry.