As every movement needs leaders, the Promethean movement needs Prometheans. Prometheans are to be the leaders of the Promethean movement, providing guidance, creative ideas, and a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds and abilities. For the Promethean movement and the world, a Promethean must also act as a precursor of the fulfillment of individual promise. A Promethean must demonstrate respect for life and other lives, which a strong and secure individual is able to show. In short, a Promethean must embody the qualities which will be augmented and more accessible under a Promethean society. A Promethean becomes a herald of the future, as well as a hero or heroine of the present.

The most fundamental distinction of a Promethean is described in the following quote from The Promethean Manifesto:

"A Promethean is defined by devotion to the improvement of human life. The profound value of a life is not merely its survival and subsistence, but especially its strength and vitality. The basic inspiration for Prometheans, the leaders of the Promethean movement, should come from an overriding and fundamental belief in the importance of preserving and enhancing the value of life. A Promethean works to advance the essence of life and the order of life."

A Promethean values the advancement of the substance of human existence, experience, and creativity above all else, not merely favoring human survival but favoring the development of humanity. This humanity is nothing more or less than a collection of all individuals, including oneself. Further, self-expression as the basic essence of life is, in cognizant life (human life), marked by will. And will and freedom of will are generated within an individual consciousness. So, with recognition of the nature of human life and the necessarily personal path of its advancement, a devotion to individualism follows from a devotion to life.

A Promethean seeks the advancement of himself and other individuals as strong, vital, noble human beings — most especially through uninhibited personal freedom of development. Freedom attains special worth for the movement in its allowance for diversity, because those who develop as the rarest or as the unique among individuals, perhaps even the most peculiar or deviant in its literal sense, tend to advance life most dramatically.

There is more to this role of leadership than ideas and ideals; there must be a personal devotion to accomplishing them. This includes a vehement opposition to the modern state of the world. The predominant values currently believed are contrary or tangential to the value of Prometheans. Today must be challenged and negated, only so that we can affirm tomorrow: the existence of a Promethean society on earth.