Leadership is not a destination; it is a journey filled with learning, adaptation, and growth. Whether you are a seasoned executive or an aspiring leader, understanding your current leadership stage is crucial for growth and impact. By assessing where you stand, you can identify your strengths, address areas for improvement, and set actionable goals for the future. This process promotes self-awareness and enables targeted growth.
Self-Awareness
Harvard Business Review writes that “Knowing yourself is critical to being an effective leader”. Self-awareness serves as the foundation of impactful leadership, allowing you to understand how your actions and decisions influence yourself and those around you. Are you inspiring yourself and others, or are there gaps in your approach? Recognizing these aspects enables you to refine your leadership style and become more intentional about your growth. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” – notes Nathaniel Branden.
Leadership development is not a one-size-fits-all process. Every leader is at a different stage in their journey, and recognizing your current stage helps you focus on the specific areas that need improvement. For instance, an emerging leader might need to build confidence and communication skills, while an established leader may need to refine their strategic vision. This self-assessment should be an ongoing process, particularly during major role transitions, job changes, or career shifts.
As organizations evolve and change all the time, so must their leaders. Assessing your leadership stage ensures that your personal growth aligns with your organization’s and industries’ needs. Whether it involves leading a team through change, driving innovation, or strengthening company culture, knowing your stage prepares you to play your role effectively. Furthermore, leadership is not solely about personal success—it is about the people you lead. A leader who understands their capabilities and limitations can create an environment that promotes collaboration, mentorship, and growth within their team. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” – stresses Harvey S. Firestone.
The Steps
Assessing your leadership stage involves a combination of self-reflection, feedback, and structured evaluation. The following steps can help you gain clarity on your current leadership position:
• Build on Your Strengths
Take time to analyze your strengths during your leadership journey, considering the successes you have achieved and the positive lessons you have learned. Questions such as “How do I handle opportunity?” or “What motivates my team?” can provide valuable insights. “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey mentioned.
• Seek Feedback from Others
Colleagues, mentors, and team members can offer honest input about your leadership style. Their perspectives may reveal more strengths you may have, also show blind spots and highlight areas for growth that you might not recognize on your own. “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard rightfully comments.
• Utilize Leadership Frameworks
Tools such as the Situational Leadership Model, the Leadership Pipeline framework, or Emotional Intelligence (EQ) assessments, leadership roadmap covered in my book “The Business Caring Formula” can help categorize your stage and provide guidance on your development path. Assessing skills such as communication, decision-making, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and strategic thinking is essential. Tools like 360-degree assessments or leadership competency quizzes can help pinpoint areas needing improvement. Let’s quote here John F. Kennedy – “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” and Eleanor Roosevelt – “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”
Once you have identified your current stage, setting specific, measurable, and timetabled goals can help you advance to the next level. For instance, if your goal is to improve team engagement, you might establish benchmarks like conducting regular one-on-one meetings, implementing feedback processes, or driving a culture of open communication. Setting the stage and plan is essential and that is why Zig Ziggler highlights that “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
The Stages
Leadership is often categorized into distinct stages, each with its own focus and challenges:
• Emerging Leaders: These individuals are building foundational skills such as confidence, communication, and team collaboration. They are developing their leadership voice and learning how to navigate workplace dynamics. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader.
• Developing Leaders: At this stage, leaders refine their techniques, gain experience, and begin to take on more responsibility. They focus on improving decision-making, delegation, and strategic thinking. “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” – John C. Maxwell.
• Established Leaders: These leaders manage teams, drive results, and align their work with broader organizational objectives. They work on strengthening their influence, coaching others, and developing a long-term vision. “The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.” – Henry Kissinger.
• Visionary Leaders: At the highest stage, leaders focus on shaping the future, driving innovation, and influencing industry-wide change. They nurture a strong leadership legacy, mentor the next generation, and inspire change at a larger scale. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker.
Understanding which stage you are in provides confidence, clarity and direction, helping you navigate your life.
Assessing your leadership stage is not a one-time exercise; it is a continuous process that evolves with your experiences and aspirations. By regularly evaluating where you are, you can take intentional steps to grow. Leadership is a lifelong journey of learning and adaptation. The more self-aware you are, the more impactful and inspiring your leadership will become. “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan.
To conclude, I would like to share my thoughts from my book The Business Caring Formula: “Leadership based on caring starts with yourself and extends from the home environment to business organizations, from the Fortune 500 company to the small local shop in your community, and to your very own startup.”
