The purpose of the article is to characterize the emerging approaches of the leadership of SMEs in the commerce sector of the city of Barranquilla. Epistemologically it is circumscribed within the quantitative paradigm, descriptive and field type, transectional design, descriptive analysis. For data collection, the survey technique was used through a questionnaire structured by (9) items, with an ordinal scale, applied to 60 managers of the SMEs under study. An arithmetic mean of 2.90 was evidenced, with a standard deviation of 0.23, positive trend: 26.48%, neutral: 33.33% and negative: 40.19%, placing it in the moderate category. The substitute indicator being the most affected with an average of 2.66, followed by the potentiator; The indicator that scored the best was neutralizers. It is concluded that the emerging approaches to leadership contemplate a relationship of reciprocal stimulation and elevation that turns followers into leaders and can turn leaders into moral agents, socially impacted by the time, culture, currents of thought and current administration schools, giving rise to the innovative and strategic.