Robust leadership is increasingly recognised as a critical element of healthy professions, yet some research suggests that early childhood practitioners do not readily identify with the concept of leadership. This article explores some dimensions of leadership in early childhood and how it is understood and practised in Australian early childhood contexts.The analysis suggests that the dominant images of leadership in the wider community and the discourses of early childhood, together with increasing control of the profession through mandated curriculum and auditing and the rise of corporate childcare and commodified children’s services, militate against the realisation of a strong leadership identity. Resources emerging from feminist work in the area of leadership, ethics and professionalism provide new opportunities to reconceptualise leadership through activism and engagement. Such a shift has implications for how we might reconstruct the professional preparation of early childhood teachers through projects of action and activism. The article concludes with an outline of a pilot project involving pre-service teachers in a project of community engagement in which aspects of a ‘new leadership’ are practised.