MGMT8270 Chap.3 Forming a Leader Identity
Forming a Leader Identity
Leadership as identity
Week 3 moves from what leaders do to who they become. Identity is shaped by context, relationships and power, and a leader identity must be claimed by the person and granted by others, which is why some people find the claim harder to make stick.
Three approaches and their tools
The chapter compares singular, dual and plural approaches to developing a leader identity.
The singular approach looks back, inward and forward, including a letter from your best possible future leader self. The dual approach uses overlapping identity circles to surface tensions between leader and one other identity.
The plural approach uses the Twenty Statements Test and an identity map with enriching and conflicting links, and intersectionality explains why some combinations of identity make leadership harder to have granted.
How identity work feeds your assessment
The Video Reflection is built around change in your leader identity, so the three approaches give it structure: a singular story of where you have led, the tension between your leader identity and one other, and the wider network of identities that shapes how others see you.
Intersectionality adds the question of context and power: whose leadership is readily recognised, and whose has to be argued for.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Identity and leader identity
- 02
Claimed and granted leader identity
- 03
Singular, dual and plural approaches
- 04
The best possible leader self
- 05
Dual identity circles
- 06
The Twenty Statements Test
- 07
Drawing an identity map
- 08
Intersectionality and leader development
Worked example · free
Reading a dual identity circle for a new manager
- 1This is the dual approach: leader identity is being developed in relation to one other identity, friend.
- 1The small overlap shows the two identities feel weakly connected, and the items outside it name the tensions she must reconcile.
- 1A development step is to reframe honest feedback as an act of loyalty, the value the two identities already share, and practise it in one conversation.
Key terms
- Leader Identity
- The part of a person's sense of self that sees them as a leader, claimed by them and granted by others.
- Plural Identity Approach
- A view that leader identity develops through many interacting identities rather than inside one self.
- Twenty Statements Test
- An exercise of twenty quick answers to who you are, used to surface the identities you hold.
- Intersectionality
- Crenshaw's idea that categories such as race and gender interact rather than simply add together.
- Best Possible Leader Self
- An imagined future version of yourself leading at your best, used as a reflective exercise.
Forming a Leader Identity FAQ
What does it mean that others must grant a leader identity?
Seeing yourself as a leader is only half of it; followers, colleagues and others must also accept you in that role. Because they grant it more readily to some people than others, two equally capable people can have very different experiences.
What is the best possible leader self exercise?
You write a short letter, five to seven sentences, from yourself five years in the future to yourself now, describing how you lead. Research the seminar cites links this reflection to stronger leader identity and effectiveness.
How is an identity map different from the dual identity circles?
The circles compare your leader identity with one other identity. The map places leader at the centre of all your salient identities, joined by solid lines where they enrich each other and dashed lines where they conflict.
Why does intersectionality matter for leader development?
Because identities such as gender, race and migration status interact rather than add up, the same leadership behaviour can be received differently depending on who shows it. Applying the idea to your own development means asking which combinations of your identities make leadership easier or harder to have recognised.
Assessment move
Complete the Twenty Statements Test, turn the results into an identity map, and write two sentences on where your leader identity sits and which link you most want to strengthen. Finish by writing the one sentence the Video Reflection needs about how your sense of yourself as a leader has moved.
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