Guest commentary: The 3 phases that shape a leader’s journey
By Amy Friedrich
I’ve seen plenty of workplace trends come and go, but there is one observation that has stuck with me through the years: Most leadership journeys follow a familiar pattern. After decades spent in both individual contributor and leadership roles, I’ve noticed that growth as a leader can be categorized into three phases. Whether you’re just starting out or guiding others, understanding these phases can help you make sense of your own path and strengthen the leadership pipeline around you. I welcome anyone to reflect on these phases, how they show up and how they feel.
Phase 1: Lead yourself
Prove your worth
Early on in your journey, regardless of whether you’re new to leadership or new to an organization, it’s about leading yourself to prove your worth. This means showing that you’re knowledgeable, engaged and willing to make a contribution. Proving that you can effectively lead yourself builds trust and opens doors both in your role and across the organization. Become an expert by understanding the work, the why behind it and how it ties back to the business and the bottom line.
This phase feels great. You feel seen, needed and often in control of your results. You are valued for your knowledge, performance and impact. But the challenge is this: Some people get stuck in this phase forever, thinking they need to spend their entire careers proving themselves. While that may be a worthy phase if you’re an individual contributor, it won’t help you progress in your leadership journey.
Phase 2: Lead others
Gain followership
Next, it’s about leading others and gaining followership — not just with a title, but with your presence. The ability to impact and influence those around you is a privilege that is earned. We each carry obligations: to our teams, to our customers, to our organizations. How you collaborate and drive accountability ultimately builds toward empowering your team — which is just as critical as any task you complete on your own.
This phase also feels great — often when it’s done well it could even be described as intoxicating. Not only are others following you, they are viewing you as a role model or someone they want to imitate. I see most leaders struggle to get beyond these first and second phases, probably because it really is about them. When you judge your leadership journey by how you feel, Phase 2 can seem like the destination. You’re leading a team that looks up to you and relies on you to set the tone, make decisions and advocate for them.
Many people hover between leading themselves and leading others. In stressful times, some revert back to Phase 1 and prove their worth through their individual contributions. To continue to the third phase of leadership, you truly have to adjust your lens beyond yourself and to developing other leaders.
Phase 3: Create other leaders
Leave a legacy
The final phase is the toughest but the most rewarding: creating other leaders. This is where a true leader shines. They understand that their responsibility is now to move the organization through other people — not through themselves.
The hard truth: Phases 1 and 2 many times feel a whole lot better than 3. This phase is quieter and more self-reflective. It is defined by feeling internal satisfaction for the accomplishments of other people. You have to truly believe giving away pieces of your knowledge, success and power yields better results. The leaders you are shaping get the limelight: They get promoted and recognized and you feel proud, not overlooked. This is the only phase of leadership that perpetuates the creation of more leaders and relies on the belief that power shared is power grown.
Organizations without leaders in this final phase risk getting stuck in a loop, full of capable managers and strong individual contributors, but missing the generational lift that comes from growing new leaders.
A key litmus test for reaching this phase is listening to what others say when a leader leaves or retires. If the team says, “We don’t know how to do this without you,” it may be a sign they weren’t given the chance to grow into leaders themselves. But if they say, “We’ll miss you, but we’ve got this because you taught us,” that’s real leadership. And that’s the legacy you leave.
Amy Friedrich is president of benefits and protection with Principal Financial Group. Principal’s benefits and protection department serves more than 130,000 employers and 4 million people. Friedrich leads 3,500 employees responsible for group employee benefits, life insurance, disability insurance and nonqualified deferred compensation, along with the distribution arm, which includes Principal Securities, the broker-dealer organization, and network of affiliated financial professionals. Insurance products and plan administrative services provided through Principal Life Insurance Company, a member of the Principal Financial Group.
