On Purpose: Leader Self‐Development and the Meaning of Purposeful Engagement

Abstract

For leaders to develop deep‐level change, they must do so “on purpose.” Developmental experience alone—be it training, job assignments, coaching, or mentoring—is not adequate to develop leadership. Instead, leaders' purposeful engagement with experience develops leadership, particularly at the deepest levels of change. The current article defines leader self‐development and explains how the reasons a leader develops (i.e., autonomy) are just as important as a leader's ability to develop (i.e., self‐regulation). Increased attention to leader self‐development will allow practitioners to foster deeper, larger, and more long‐lasting changes in individuals' capacity to lead and will allow researchers to get to the core of examining the process of development.

Unraveling leadership potential

“…This view is in accordance with the emergent idea in the leadership development literature that leaders must drive their own development via self-development processes, or the purposefully engagement in autonomous and self-regulated development processes (e.g., Reichard & Johnson, 2011;Walker & Reichard, 2020).…”

“…Specifically, this dissertation draws onto prior conceptual contributions from Silzer and Church (2009b), , Church and Silzer (2014), Finkelstein et al (2018), and Church et al (2021. In addition, this first theoretical contribution draws on prior scholarly contributions in the leader development field that emphasize a long-term study lens, and that link both organizational and individual perspectives regarding the leader development process (e.g., Day & Dragoni, 2015;Day & Sin, 2011;Reichard & Johnson, 2011;Walker & Reichard, 2020) (2018). These prior studies aimed to explain different facets of leadership, rather than focusing on conceptually understanding, and subsequently measuring constructs associated with leadership potential.…”

Go for the gold: Hurdles and winning strategies for conducting longitudinal and nonlinear research in undergraduate leader development

“…Instead, LD occurs over the long term and involves a deep change in identity, schemas, internal structures, and conceptual frames (Day & Dragoni, 2015 ). It arises from an ongoing series of challenging curricular and co‐curricular experiences that require hard work, deep engagement, and self‐reflection (Murphy & Johnson, 2011 ; Walker & Reichard, 2020 ). If we take a snapshot of students' leadership outcomes at one point—say at the end of their undergraduate career (e.g., Time 5 for Jamal)—we fail to capture the ebb and flow of the longitudinal development process.…”

Enacting a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice emphasis in graduate and professional leadership education

“…People learn to drive their own development (self‐development) through personal responsibility and initiative. What drives development may be the meaning leaders ascribe to the experience, and the changes leaders make as a result that generates development (Walker & Reichard, 2020). When it comes to development, adult development is not automatic, nor does it occur in stages.…”

“…Leader self‐development is not equated with initiation. Anyone can initiate the development process, informally or formally; however, the self‐developed person controls the process of engagement and the deepness of growth through purposeful engagement, autonomy, and self‐regulation (Walker & Reichard, 2020). Purposeful engagement occurs when a leader emotionally and psychologically involves themselves in the self‐development process.…”