Integrating Skill Acquisition and Perspective Taking Capacity in the Development of Leaders

This essay integrates approaches from three literatures to develop a model of leader development. Kanfer and Ackerman’s (1989) episodic model of skill acquisition is combined with Kegan’s approach to adult development to encompass development of transactional and transformational leadership. Importantly, feedback mechanisms are added to explain changes in individuals’intellectual capacities, values, and beliefs over time. This framework provides a summary of what is known about the processes underlying developmental change in how leaders understand and act on their environment and provides specific directions for future research.