Crossword Genius

Doing brilliantly, confronting leader to be deposed (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

acing

'doing brilliantly' is the definition.
(to ace something is to do really well at it)

'confronting leader to be deposed' is the wordplay.
'confronting' becomes 'facing' ('face' can be a synonym of 'confront').
'leader to be deposed' means to remove the first letter.
'facing' with its first letter removed is 'ACING'.

(Another definition for acing that I've seen is " passing exam with flying colors".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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