Identity-based leader development

Abstract

Despite the wealth of managerial and scholarly attention paid to leadership development, only recently has a new perspective emerged that explicitly links leadership and identity. Research and theorizing on leadership development have yet to specify the processes that account for identity transformations in role transitions. This paper proposes a new, identity-based model of leader development that focuses attention on the key transitions that shape leaders’ careers, specifying processes and moderating conditions for identity transformation. Implications for designing experiences and training that take identity processes into account are drawn. 1