Leadership Emergence Theory for Marketplace Leaders

Leadership growth doesn’t happen by accident. Whether you’re leading a team, running a business, or simply trying to influence people faithfully in your everyday life, your development unfolds over seasons shaped by experiences, challenges, and God’s quiet work beneath the surface. Leadership Emergence Theory offers a practical way to understand that journey. Originally developed by Dr. J. Robert Clinton and adapted here by Dr. Paul Leavenworth, this model helps marketplace leaders see the long arc of growth—both the character being formed and the competencies being developed. Instead of chasing quick wins or leadership shortcuts, LET invites us into a lifelong view of maturing in purpose, wisdom, and influence.

What Is Leadership Emergence Theory?

Leadership Emergence Theory (LET) is a framework that explains how leaders develop over a lifetime. While Clinton originally designed it for vocational Christian leaders, Paul has adapted it so marketplace leaders—Christian or not—can easily see themselves in the process. At its core, LET teaches that God uses both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances to shape a leader’s maturity. Every season has a purpose. Every challenge holds potential. And every stage builds toward deeper clarity and greater impact.

A Lifelong Process of Growth

LET emphasizes that leadership maturity happens through an entire lifetime, not in a single job, role, or accomplishment. This long-view perspective helps leaders avoid frustration when progress feels slow or when their calling unfolds in unexpected ways. Instead of forcing outcomes, leaders can focus on responding faithfully to each season.

How We Respond Matters

We can’t control every circumstance, but we can control our posture. When leaders respond positively to the challenges, relationships, and environments they’re placed in, growth accelerates. When we resist those moments, growth stalls until we’re ready to face the lesson again. Paul often reminds leaders that God is far more invested in shaping our character than advancing our platform.

Character and Competency Develop Together

Effective leadership requires both who we are (character) and what we can do (competency). LET shows how each stage strengthens both sides, helping leaders avoid the trap of high skill with shallow character—or deep conviction without practical effectiveness.

The Six Stages of Leadership Emergence Theory

Each stage of LET offers unique opportunities for growth. Leaders don’t move through them at the same speed, nor do they always recognize their stage until reflecting backward. But each one builds toward a leader who is grounded, focused, and ultimately able to leave a meaningful legacy.

Stage 1 – Background Formation

This stage includes everything that shaped you long before you chose to lead—your personality, family story, wiring, culture, and early environment. Paul emphasizes that none of this is accidental. God places each person in a specific context that can prepare them to become the leader He desires them to be. Background doesn’t determine destiny, but it forms the soil from which destiny grows.

Stage 2 – Identity Formation

During late adolescence and early adulthood, leaders begin asking deeper questions: Who am I? What do I believe? What matters to me? This “crisis and commitment” stage is where emerging leaders wrestle with identity, meaning, and worldview. For Christians, this is often when faith becomes personal, and intimacy with Christ begins shaping character at the deepest level.

Stage 3 – Competency Formation

Here, leaders start discovering and developing their gift mix—natural abilities, acquired skills, and, for Christ followers, spiritual gifts. Marketplace settings offer rich soil for growth: new responsibilities, relational challenges, conflict, authority structures, and stretch experiences. This is where leaders learn to lead, not just think about leading.

Stage 4 – Focus Formation

As leaders gain experience, they begin to identify their unique purpose. This stage involves refining a personal philosophy of leadership and aligning gifts, values, and calling into a cohesive whole. Paul notes that this clarity becomes the foundation for future effectiveness—it’s the bridge into the next stage.

Stage 5 – Convergence

Convergence is the season where everything comes together—your background, calling, strengths, and learned wisdom. Leaders often describe this as functioning at “maximum effectiveness,” where they sense deep alignment between who they are and the work God has entrusted to them. This stage typically emerges in mid-life or later, after years of refinement.

Stage 6 – Legacy

Few leaders reach this stage, but those who do leave a lasting impact. Legacy isn’t about titles or recognition; it’s about people—those you invest in, mentor, and empower to lead well. Leaders in this stage naturally turn toward developing the next generation and influencing through presence, wisdom, and relationship.

Why Leadership Emergence Theory Matters Today

Leadership Emergence Theory helps marketplace leaders see their growth through a healthier lens—one not driven by comparison, hurry, or accomplishment, but by long-term spiritual formation. Instead of feeling behind or uncertain, leaders can recognize God’s steady shaping across every season. And because this framework emphasizes both character and competency, it equips leaders to guide teams, organizations, and communities with deeper wisdom and greater steadiness.

It Removes Pressure to “Arrive” Quickly

Many leaders feel the cultural pressure to succeed early. LET reminds us that leadership depth takes decades, not years. This frees leaders to focus on faithfulness in the stage they’re in rather than worrying about the stage they’re not.

It Helps Leaders Interpret Their Experiences

Instead of feeling confused by difficult seasons or transitions, leaders can see them as purposeful opportunities for development. Paul consistently emphasizes that God wastes nothing—not conflict, not uncertainty, not hardship.

It Strengthens Long-Term Influence

When leaders understand where they are and what God is shaping in them, their leadership becomes more intentional and grounded. They lead with humility, clarity, and increasing wisdom—qualities that influence others for years to come.

Leadership Emergence Theory gives marketplace leaders a framework for understanding how God forms leaders over time. It offers language for the seasons we live through and hope for the growth still ahead. Whether you’re just beginning your leadership journey or decades into it, LET invites you to embrace the slow, steady work of God shaping a leader who can serve faithfully, steward influence well, and ultimately finish well.

1. James Marcia’s theory of adolescent identity development