Being a leader does not start with a title and end with a position, it does not start at point A and end at point B.
It is a way of life, a lifelong journey, a conscious choice to live according to your values and to build through others.
Leadership is, in its essence, a path of empowerment, of professional and personal maturity.
Looking back on my professional journey, I see it as a succession of stages of maturity in leadership. It was never a linear path, nor a continuous climb up the hierarchical ladder. It was rather an inner journey, an alternation between struggles, lessons learned, and shifts in mindset. It was a flowing journey in which the context influenced me as much as I influenced it through my own choices and behaviors.
As I see it now, the Leadership Path has four major phases.
- Performer
At the beginning, it’s you and your results. You want to show yourself, prove yourself, perform. The mindset is “here and now” and your energy is focused on making your mark through your performance. It is the natural stage of any ambitious professional.
And when you believe everything is settled, you realize that you can do more, that you want more. Something different.
- Manager
You feel ready and take the step towards becoming a manager. You start looking at the team. It’s no longer just about you, but about “us and our results.” You realize that success no longer lies solely in what you do, but also in what others manage to accomplish.
You learn to plan, organize, and set goals. You coordinate processes, manage tasks, and transfer skills.
Frustrations arise. If you did it yourself, it would happen faster. You struggle with delegation. You push and pull in all directions. Both them and yourself.
You function like a firefighter putting out fires, and all the answers are with you.
Slowly, things begin to work, and the results and the satisfaction you feel are great.
Until the annoyance comes back. It’s like not enough anymore. You ‘realize that results are only a consequence. “So? What’s next?”
- Leader
This is where a major change occurs. You see that your role is not just to manage, but to generate growth. You develop people, grow the business, and support the team in achieving its goals. You work on strategy and the big picture. More importantly, you realize that leadership is less about controlling and more about supporting and inspiring others. The impostor syndrome is increasingly present. Based on the principle that “the more you learn, the more you realize how less you know.” You are looking at other leaders you admire and comparing yourself to them. 😊
You are taking on the role of a leader. You want to inspire. You are no longer focused on results but on the impact you bring, the value you create.
- Leader of Leaders
A stage in which we rise above our own existence. It is no longer about leading directly.
It is about creating leaders.
Leader of Leaders develops collective leadership, builds autonomous teams, and cultivates a culture in which people grow not only for their roles but also to become leaders themselves. The mentality shifts from “here and now” to “beyond me, beyond now.”
You want meaningful performance.
It’s about legacy—what you leave behind, in the organization or in the world, and how you are impacting future generations.
Even if it sounds pretentious, I dare say that the focus is shifting to a legacy that transcends one’s own existence. We almost see ourselves as immortal through the ripple effect we create from the flutter of a thought we all have: I want and can do more.
And this is where the butterfly effect begins.
What differentiates these stages is not only the skills, but also the way you choose to look at your role:
• From me and my results → to us and our processes.
• From us and the team’s goals → to them and their growth.
• From them and their growth → to all of us and the impact that remains.
Moving from one stage to another actually means mentality shift and realignment between who I am and who I want to become.
The narrative, which is easy to recognize, is “I have nothing left to prove”. When I feel that I have reached the limits of a certain stage and have nothing left to prove, it is a sign that I am ready to move on to another stage, to another search for myself.
It is not a simple process. It is not an epiphany that appears and suddenly I am someone else.
It implies many parallel processes, reflection processes, choices – decisions – actions and resources involved. The transition from one identity to another is one marked by discomfort, by learning and resistance to learning, by resistance to change. It is a process of reflection and realignment with oneself.
That’s why I call it a process of maturity.
The identity of the professional, the leader, and especially the person undergoes transformations that are visible in the impact that this process has on both our lives and those around us.
Moreover, each maturity stage also requires new competences. I need to bring in new instruments and techniques to sustain me in bringing into practice a new mentality and a new vision of the world and life. I need the contexts that will sustain me.
It is a learning and unlearning process that creates new habits and reveals needs that we were unaware of until that moment.
How long does it last and how uncomfortable is it? It all depends on each of us. It depends on our openness to look within ourselves and ask the uncomfortable questions. It also depends on our capacity to consciously and deliberately engage support and to place ourselves in challenging and growth-promoting contexts.
Is it simple? Not at all! It is a complex process that brings meaning and fulfillment.
We only go through it if we assume responsibility for it. It is not a must.
It is a personal choice.
Looking behind, these stages did not came one after another in a perfect order, but they flowed in a very fluid way. There were times when I returned to the performer mentality, other times when I found myself fully in the role of manager, even after I felt I had moved on. The context I was in—crises, opportunities, new teams, or transformation projects—always called me to juggle these roles.
The Leadership Path is not a linear path, nor does it have a fixed end. It is a journey of commitment and expansion, a life-long journey.