If everything is essential, then nothing is.
We use the word essential constantly. In meetings, strategies, and briefs, things are described as essential when we mean important, critical, or simply high on the priority list. The word still carries weight, but it has drifted from what it originally meant.
This is not just a language problem. It reflects a deeper shift in how we think, one that began long before the modern workplace.
Where the word came from
The word essence originates in the Ancient Greek term ousia, derived from the verb “to be.” Its most literal sense is beingness. Ousia was not about usefulness or importance. It named what it means for something to exist as what it is, in its own right.
When Greek philosophy was translated into Latin, something was lost. Latin had no single word that could hold the full meaning of ousia, so two words were introduced instead. Essentia expressed what something is. Substantia referred to the underlying thing, the enduring subject beneath its qualities. What had been held together in one word was now split across two. Being came to be understood as a property one holds rather than a condition one is.
Each translation into modern languages added another remove. Essence narrowed to mean an inner core or defining set of traits. Essential came to mean whatever is necessary for something to function or succeed. By the time the word reached everyday use, its meaning had thinned, from being to usefulness.
Today, essential tells us what matters. It no longer tells us what something is.
A thought exercise
What if we tried to recover the original meaning, even partially? To call something essential, in its original sense, is not to say it is important. It is to say that without it, the thing in question would no longer be what it is. That is a much stricter, more demanding threshold.
Applied to humanity, the distinction becomes uncomfortable. Food, shelter, and physical survival are necessary, but they are not uniquely human. Every living creature needs them. So we reach for higher ground: rational thought, moral agency, emotional depth, the capacity for meaning and relationship. These feel more deeply and uniquely human.
But then we pause. A person in a vegetative state cannot reason or act with agency. A person living with advanced dementia may lose rational thought or moral deliberation. We do not say either has ceased to be human.
So what, exactly, is essential to our humanity? The question resists easy answers, but how we answer it, even imperfectly, reveals something about ourselves.
The way we treat those who are most vulnerable, the way we design spaces that either dignify or diminish, the way we lead those who depend on us: these are not just professional or ethical choices. They are reflections of what we believe it means to be human. In that sense, how we answer the question is itself an expression of our humanity.
So how do you answer it? What, to you, is truly essential to our humanity?
Essential to design
If how we answer that question of human essence reflects who we are, then what we build may be one of its most tangible expressions. The built environment is where belief is cast in concrete.
Design is discussed constantly in terms of aesthetics, performance, efficiency, sustainability, and innovation. These are real and important considerations. But are any of them essential in the original sense?
A home is not a home because it is technologically capable or innovative. It is a home because it enables dwelling: the accumulation of memory, emotional attachment, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging. These are not features. They are what makes a home what it is.
This distinction has a long history in design thinking. Heidegger argued in 1951 that dwelling is not the result of building but its very purpose and precondition. To build without understanding what it means to dwell is to construct shelter without creating place.
We have become skilled at optimizing buildings. We measure performance, model energy use, and simulate occupancy. What we ask less often is what the building fundamentally is. Not what it does, but what it is. Whether it will carry not just structural loads, but the memory, presence, and being of those who inhabit it. That question is worth asking more often.
How will you answer the question: What is essential to design itself?
Essential to leadership
The question of essence extends to how we lead.
Leadership is frequently described in terms of authority, decisiveness, results, or influence. These may be expressions or outcomes of leadership, but they describe what it produces or how it appears, not what it is.
The attempts to define leadership are everywhere: performance metrics, behavioral models, leadership style assessments, and personality typologies. Each captures something real, but none captures the whole. Yet organizations are built on them, careers are shaped by them, and the deeper question goes unasked.
What is the irreducible core of leadership: not its outcomes, not its style, not its tools, but its being? If essence means that without which a thing would no longer be what it is, then what must be present for leadership to be what it is, and not merely what it does?
What is the essence of leadership? That question is yours to sit with.
References
Harper, D. (n.d.). “Etymology of essential.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.etymonline.com/word/essential
Heidegger, M. (1971). “Building Dwelling Thinking.” In Poetry, Language, Thought (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). Harper & Row. (pp. 141–160)
“Ousia.” (n.d.). Encyclopedia MDPI. Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/28629
“Ousia: Essence or Being.” (n.d.). Sokratiko. Retrieved from https://www.sokratiko.com/words/ousia-is-essence-or-being/
Robinson, H. (2023). “Substance.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance/
Rodrigues, A. H. (n.d.). “Aristotle on Being and Substance.” PhilArchive. Retrieved from https://philarchive.org/archive/RODABH
Shields, C. (2023). “Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/#WhatSubs
