Are we attending to social needs or promoting social agendas?

The theme of this special issue is leadership and knowledge innovation in occupational therapy. We understand leadership beyond and away from the capitalistic values that include but are not limited to productivity, quantitative measures, managerial roles, and “value for the money” that govern most of the systems and services we work or should access in society. Aligning with Backman (2022), we agree that leadership is not about having a title, being perceived by others as an authority, possessing power and some specific features and personal attributes. Still, its focus relies on social changes and recognizing the role of teams and collectives. Therefore, having an outcome or need for action opens the doors of leadership to each of us, and citing an outcome or reason for action encourages leadership to everyone acting in their circle of influence that goes from our micro, meso and macro levels (Backman, 2022).