Leadership Development Plan

Leadership development tends to happen in reaction to the present: an immediate challenge, a performance conversation, a role that demands a capability the leader doesn't yet have. That reactive model produces growth, but it's growth without direction - competency built for the role you're in rather than the leader you're becoming.

This worksheet asks you to plan across four time horizons: 10 years, 5 years, 3 years, and 1 year. Each horizon asks for a milestone across three dimensions: the scope of your impact, the size and nature of the team you'll lead, and the breadth of stakeholders you'll influence. Working from the longest horizon back to the shortest changes what appears in each time frame - the 1-year milestone stops being a stand-alone goal and becomes a first step in a longer trajectory.

The action steps are the accountability mechanism. Without them, a leadership development plan is a vision statement. With them, it becomes a sequence of specific decisions and behaviors that can be observed, measured, and coached.

Work from 10 years to 1 year. The discomfort in the longer horizons is part of the exercise.