Elizabeth Florent-Treacy

This study explored written narratives of 28 participants’ experience in one executive leadership development programme, to shed light on the way participants explore and experiment with new working identities in the leadership development identity laboratory. The study adopted a mixed-method approach. A series of six programme-related case studies per individual was analysed. These narratives were written over a period of 15 months. Findings from this study were presented to the group after the end of the programme. As the author was also a participant in the programme, the methodology was qualitative and hermeneutic, with the author using ‘self as instrument’. The narratives were studied through a conceptual interpretation approach. The narratives show participants moving through an epigenic process similar to group psychotherapy. This study shows that group psychotherapy can be adapted to create an identity laboratory experience for executives. In addition, this study shows that the process of writing can be a critical success factor in executives’ passage through an identity lab experience.

Keywords: identity laboratories, identity transition narratives, leadership coaching, executive coaching, leadership development, evaluation of leadership development programmes, group psychotherapy.

Full article: Volume 4, Issue 1 pages 71 - 86