HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Leading people at different stages of personal development An actionable framework for practitioners balancing emotional support and growth for a conscious future
Provisionally accepted
Markus M Luedi1*
Susan Goldsworthy2- 1University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- 2International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Leadership is no longer just about directing tasks or achieving short-term goals. It is about navigating complexity, fostering growth, and addressing the human dimension of work in an era of constant change. Today's leaders are expected to balance emotional support with strategic challenges, a dynamic process that empowers teams to thrive while fostering personal development. However, effectively guiding individuals at different stages of personal growth remains challenging. We present a conceptual synthesis that integrates insights from developmental psychology, integral theory, philosophy, neuroscience, and contemporary leadership concepts (e.g., authentic, adaptive, transformational, and servant leadership) to explore the transformative concept of "secure base leadership". The originality of this paper lies not in surveying a wide range of thinkers, but in integrating the core strands into a coherent framework for leadership across stages of personal development.
Keywords: personal development, Secure Base Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, psychological growth, care–challenge balance, Integral Theory
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luedi and Goldsworthy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Markus M Luedi, markus.luedi@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.