Becoming: A Reflective Leadership Journey

This paper explores transformational leadership as a deeply personal, deeply intimate, and reflective journey. My journey has been shaped by intentional growth, teachable moments, and the wrestling that comes with personal transformation after a lifetime of life-complicating issues and destructive generational cycles. I will present leadership, much like destiny, as a dynamic process of becoming that unfolds over time, experience, challenge, and self-awareness. Neither destiny nor leadership is linear (Northouse, 2022; Clinton, 2012).

The narrative of leadership development presented here acknowledges that my path has been marked by twists and turns and by unexpected opportunities that serve as catalysts for change, growth, and spiritual formation. Both challenges and victories are significant in my shaping. Though seemingly disruptive at times, the challenges set the stage for true and lasting impact by creating an inner angst that exclaims, “There must be change!” (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Through reflection, vulnerability, and courage, my experiences become essential components for transformation, contributing to a deeper understanding of both self and calling (Mezirow, 1991).

Rather than achievement, title, or position, this paper focuses on my personal growth and leadership journey. The leader I have always meant to become is revealed over time through refining, reflection, and faith in the Caller of destiny. By embracing both the predictable and the unexpected, I am growing into an authentic, resilient leader deeply aligned with my purpose (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). It is during times of convergence (Clinton, 2012) that I can see the threads of my life, once obscured, being woven together into a tapestry by the Father’s hand, which can only be by His doing. It is then that I realized who I was, who I am, and who I will be is a vital part of the journey, and, in that revelation, I yield to and embrace the process of becoming.