The week of April 20, 2026, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly will hold the most visible moment of the selection process for the next Secretary-General: the interactive dialogues with candidates. These exchanges are intended to test what kind of leadership the contenders would bring to the office. Yet, they tend to focus on candidates’ vision for the UN rather than on their ability to operate within the constraints they will inherit.
This paper argues that leadership of the UN therefore requires the Secretary-General to perform two roles simultaneously: entrepreneur and steward.
- As an entrepreneur, the Secretary-General must articulate direction for multilateral cooperation, maintain trust across geopolitical divides, and mobilize coalitions around shared objectives.
- As a steward, the office must translate that direction into institutional action within a constrained system.
Entrepreneurship generates political momentum; stewardship determines whether the UN can convert commitments into results. These two roles redefine the conventional distinction between political and managerial leadership: both are political functions, differing primarily in where that politics is exercised—between member states and within the institution. The central question is therefore not whether candidates can articulate ambition, but whether they can exercise judgment under constraint.
The April interactive dialogues offer a unique opportunity to test both dimensions. This policy brief proposes a framework of leadership competencies to support member states in this task, distinguishing between entrepreneurial and stewardship functions and translating them into practical questions.
In reality, the choice facing member states is not between vision and execution, but between rhetoric and leadership.
