Bewitched, amputated or dead: an existential study of leadership stuckness

This is a constructivist grounded theory project building a theory on the process and definition of leadership stuckness. Ten senior leaders were interviewed, and the qualitative data analysed for patterns. This led to the creation of a theory of the process of stuckness and an existential definition of stuckness.
It was found that the process of leadership stuckness involves three losses: the loss of self and capacity to self-reflect, the loss of relationships, and the loss of meaning. A significant proportion of this research has been devoted to understanding how the participant and the context were perfectly primed for a merged relationship of stucknesss including the leader’s childhood and training. Other significant findings were that leadership stuckness is “normal”, occurs more than once in a lifetime, and varies in severity and complexity. An existential definition of stuckness was generated, as were recommendations for working with an existential approach to stuckness.