As a young first-time parent, I learned that children go through various stages, develomental steps. They find their hands and then their feet and put them in their mouth. Later, they begin speech by saying. "da, da, da". We know that early adolescents go through all kinds of hormonal and growth changes. As part of my mid-life process, I bought a sports convertible-- these are all stages or milestones in the developmental process. I believe leaders go through stages in their leadership development process.

I became acutely aware that leaders go through various milestones in their development when I was working with scores of new and aspiring leaders as the Director of the Long Island Leadership Academy. As a requirement, participants kept a reflective journal. The assignment was to refect on their challenges, experiences, lessons learned and insights gained, and regularly submit their journals to me. I worked with a revolving group of 30 participants over a three year span-- about 80 teachers and entry-level supervisors in all.

To my surprise, the very first week of the academy, 8 of the 30 participants (none of whom knew one another previously) submitted journals with the same theme. I had stumbled over an incredible piece of evidence. From that point on, I continued to analyze the journals, and I continued to discover a remarkable pattern over the next three years. In deed, there are definitive, recognizable milestones as leaders grow and develop. Over the years since this discovery, I continued to supervise and coach more experienced leaders. I was able to document and identify not only milestones for new and aspiring leaders, but also milestones for not-so-new (2 to 5 years of experience), and mature (5+ years of experience) leaders.

These milestones have many uses and represent many implications. The primary use of these milestones is to use them as criteria for assessing the growth of a leader. As we know, stimulating professional growth and development should be based on a self-reflective process. Howard Gardner refers to one of the Intelligences as the "intra-personal". We can get a look at one's intra-personal abilities through a trusting coaching relationship and by analyzing refective writings. The second use of the milestones should be the basis of self-evaluation. Another application is their use as a guide in the coaching of leaders.

Unfortunately, the various principals' rubrics that are available for use in the NYS APPR process do not take into account that beginning principals do not have the capacity to measure up to an experienced principal. From a developmental viewpoint, you would not measure a 10-year old's ability in basketball to an 18-year old.

I have narrowed down 12 milestones for each of the three stages-- 36 in all.  If you are interested in getting a free copy of my Self Assessment Survey, you can write to me at larryaronstein@yahoo.com. Your comments and questions are always appreciated.