Leadership is a contested term in many contexts and means various things to different people. In early childhood education and care (ECEC) it is understood in multilayered terms. This paper draws on a qualitative research study which employed symbolic interactionism as a methodological tool and drew data from 26 participants from the ECEC field (in particular the birth-to-five sector). The enactment of leadership in ECEC emerges as heavily influenced by factors both internal and external to the field. This paper will discuss horizontal violence as one of the significant internal impediments to leadership enactment. The notion of horizontal violence originated in nursing literature and in this paper highlights contradictions between a lingering discourse of niceness and a culture which condones behaviours that marginalise and exclude others. The outcome of this culture is a powerful expectation of compliance which does little to foster or encourage leadership activity. Suggestions are made which focus on an open discussion of this phenomenon within the ECEC field in order to address behaviours which are currently constraining leadership activity.
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