Introduction

Leadership is commonly assumed to be a skill set each individual leader needs to master, and as those skills are mastered, the job gets easier. This thinking does nothing but set leaders up for failure and to blame themselves when new challenges and situations arise that are outside of their learned skill set.

What if leadership isn’t about that kind of steady progression, and eventually having all the answers? What if we understood leadership for what it really is: a cycle. A wave. When you think of it this way, you can understand that leadership will always have its ups and its downs and its unknowns. The best leaders learn to ride this wave by focusing not on finding a perfect answer or on what they think is right. Instead they focus on where they are and the resources they have – where they are within the leadership cycle – and make the most of it.

The Leadership Cycle

The Leadership Cycle is made up of 2 variables that interact with each other:

The Leadership Stages, which are a generalized way to reflect on where you are. You are always moving forward and backward through these stages – it is not a linear progression and there is no finish line – as leaders we are moving through these stages all the time.