The Six Stages of a Leader’s Journey
By Ron Price
I recently gave a presentation on the stages of leadership where I began by challenging the audience to tell me what they thought the six stages were. They huddled into groups, brainstorming the stages and validating their ideas to one another. Then several of the groups read their answers aloud, hoping to match my list. There was plenty of laughter and some groaning as I told each group that while their list was thoughtful, it didn’t match the six stages I had come to talk about that day.
I give this example to demonstrate how different the leader’s journey can be for each person, as well as how we each perceive the steps on that journey differently, depending on where they fall in our lives. Here are the six stages of leadership I presented that day: