Managing organizations in modern societies takes place through persuasion and the seductive use of language rather than, as in past societies, through physical violence and repression. In this respect new management discourses imply a linguistic process where actors within education gradually become defined within other frames of reference. This article sets out to unpack and reconstruct perceptions of educational leadership in a report from the Ministry of Education and Science entitled "Learning Leaders: Leadership for Today's and Tomorrow's School". It is inspired by Potter's understanding of discourse. If a democratic, learning and communicative leadership is the solution--what are the problems and causes? What kind of problematic yesterday is the point of departure, and what is the promised future like? I will argue that the leader emerges as a function of a changed way to exercise power. (Contains 11 notes.)