The article addresses ways of combining theory and practice in order for theory to remain credible while also being meaningful and useful for practitioners. The aim of the study was to determine the areas of discrepancy or coherence between academic research and management practice by identifying how practitioner-managers understand modern-day leadership and whether their interpretations are consistent with current knowledge in this field. The empirical research included interviews with 13 managers of different genders, ages, and organizational levels, which made it possible to capture diverse perspectives and compare them with existing theoretical frameworks. The analysis of the interviews indicates that practitioners’ understanding of leadership largely overlaps with dominant trends in contemporary leadership theory, such as Great Man Theory, relational leadership, situational leadership, and positive leadership. It appears that the main challenge does not lie in reconciling fundamentally opposing positions, but rather in refining the ways in which knowledge about leadership is conceptualized, disseminated, and developed so that it remains both credible and practical.