This Leading Questions piece puzzles over why frontline leadership appears little understood, recognised and drawn on in both leadership studies and organisation practice. It draws on a series of empirical ‘breadcrumbs’ to craft a pathway to understanding the frontline in leadership. It argues that such leadership is porous with resistance through a theorisation built from the construct of trouble, active ‘troubling’ of management imperatives and troubles talk. It concludes by asking a series of broader questions about organisational resisting and leading through the unique lens of the frontline who bring both into a different conversation.