Every major leadership framework of the past fifty years points at the same thing from a different angle. This is true of thinkers like Ruth Haley Barton, who helped bring contemplative tradition into organizational life. It is true of the most rigorous secular models as well. To truly transform as a leader, you must begin within. In our coaching work, this is consistently what we find to be true.
Maxwell maps five levels of leadership from by positional authority to pinnacle influence. Collins, accordingly, identifies the Level 5 leader who combines fierce will with genuine humility. Greenleaf describes the servant leader who exists to serve rather than to be served. Hersey and Blanchard show how the right leadership style depends on the readiness of the person being led. Belbin identifies nine team roles and the gaps that emerge when a leadership team is not complementary. Hence, any organization pursuing this must learn to see those gaps and embody a more complete picture of what leadership truly asks. In our coaching work, Ofman’s insight proves illuminating — he reveals the relationship between between a leader’s core quality and the charge that makes it a liability. For this reason, the guidance it offers sits at the heart of this entire body of work.
All of these frameworks are correct. All of them are incomplete in the same way. They describe what leadership looks like at different levels of growth. None of them fully explains what determines which level a leader can access — and why.
The soul-based leadership development framework does.
The five energy spheres of transformation
The framework maps five expanding energy spheres — from the innermost personal sphere to the outermost universal sphere. Each sphere is associated with a natural element, a dominant emotion that emerges when the sphere’s charge is unresolved. In our coaching work, we have found that a specific leadership quality becomes available when the charge is resolved.
A leader’s effective leadership level at any moment is determined by which spheres have been resolved and which charges are still running. This is why leaders with identical skills, identical knowledge, and identical growth investment can operate at completely different Maxwell levels. The difference is not ability. It is the inner energy structure. In our coaching work, we have evidently seen this pattern emerge always across leaders at every level of an organisation.
Sphere 1 — Earth (innermost) Element: Earth · Emotion: Insecurity and Pride
The innermost sphere is the foundation of the entire structure. Earth energy is the energy of groundedness, rootedness, and stability — the sense of knowing who you are and where you belong, independent of external validation. This is the soul’s ground: the longing to stand in oneself without the constant reach toward external confirmation. It is precisely what this approach addresses at its deepest level. It invites the leader to truly embody that inner stability rather than merely understand it intellectually. In our coaching work, the Earth sphere is where the most foundational shifts emerge. Surface charges can shift quickly, yet a still unresolved Earth sphere produces two opposite charges. Insecurity surfaces as scattered energy, no clear direction, and a constant need for external confirmation. Pride, in contrast, is the overcorrection — inflating the self to compensate for the instability underneath.
In leadership terms, a leader with still unresolved Earth charges is operating from Maxwell’s Level 1 or Level 2 regardless of their title. Their authority is either by title — held in place by the title — or relational, dependent on being liked and approved of. In other words, it cannot yet be really influential. In our coaching work, we see this pattern always: genuine influence requires an inner ground that does not shift with external conditions.
The Ofman core quadrant’s deepest insight operates here. In essence, the core quality is always an Earth quality — the natural expression of who the person is at their most grounded. To fully embody soul based leadership growth, a leader must first meet this quality honestly, without defense. The allergy — what they cannot stand in others — is always the shadow of that core quality. It appears when the Earth charge is still unresolved. For instance, the leader who is allergic to laziness is carrying an Earth charge of Insecurity. That charge drives compulsive activity. Conversely, the leader who is allergic to arrogance is carrying an Earth charge of Pride. In our coaching work, we find that their own inner pattern mirrors that very charge.
Sphere 2 — Water (solar system, negative pole) Element. Water, Emotion and Anger
The Water sphere governs emotional flow — the capacity to feel, to connect, and to move energy through relationship. Yet when the Water sphere charge is still unresolved, Anger emerges: the energy of exaggerating the negative in others and wanting to separate. Anger in leadership creates blame cultures and aggressive talking. It follows that leaders also lose the ability to receive feedback without experiencing it as an attack.
The Water charge moves in seven phases — from mild criticism to the most extreme forms of separation. The leader’s position in this sequence determines how the charge manifests in their leadership relationships. This practice offers guidance that conventional models rarely reach. This guidance can feel, at times, as clarifying as a genuine retreat from the noise of daily leadership life. In our coaching work, most leaders with a significant Water charge are not at the extreme end of the sequence. They are, similarly, at the phase of persistent criticism and the need to control through judgment. This suggests it is subtle enough to be invisible in a professional context. It becomes, therefore, powerful enough to create the distance that blocks Level 4 growth — for the person and for the wider organisation they lead.
Situational leadership reaches its limit here. The leader knows which style to apply. Under pressure — which is precisely when the Water sphere charge activates — the Anger charge overrides the conscious style choice. And the leader defaults to Directing regardless of what the person in front of them actually needs.
Sphere 3 — Fire (solar system, positive pole) Element. Fire, Emotionm and Attachment
The Fire sphere governs desire, passion, and the drive to unite. Where Anger wants to separate, Attachment wants to unite — pulling the light it perceives in external objects, people, and outcomes inside itself through union. In our coaching work, this pattern emerges clearly. Due to a still unresolved Fire sphere charge, the leader cannot really delegate. They cannot celebrate others’ independence, and they structure growth relationships to create reliance rather than autonomy.
The Belbin framework reflects this sphere most directly. The Belbin roles that emerge from an Attachment charge are the Co-ordinator and the Resource Investigator — roles that create connection and pull people together. Under charge pressure, these become roles that create dependency rather than distributed leadership. The Belbin gap roles that Attachment-dominant leaders most commonly leave unfilled are the Implementer and the Completer Finisher. These are roles that require letting go of control over outcomes. In our coaching work, this pattern appears with striking consistency across leaders at every level.
Maxwell’s Level 3 to Level 4 transition is mostly a Fire sphere transition. In other words, the ability to invest 80% of time in developing others requires the resolution of the Attachment charge. That charge makes others’ independence feel like loss rather than success.
Sphere 4 — Air (universe, negative pole) Element: Air · Emotion: Jealousy
The Air sphere governs freedom, comparison, and the experience of space. If the Air sphere charge is still open, Jealousy emerges: the underdog position. It involves viewing oneself as lacking what others have, stealing rather than creating life energy. In our coaching work, this manifests in leadership as undermining colleagues, difficulty celebrating others’ success, and credit-stealing. Consequently, it fosters a competitive orientation — instead of a collaborative one — that prevents genuine team building.
The Herrmann brain quadrant framework reflects the Air sphere. Leaders with still unresolved Air charges tend to overuse the Quadrant A (analytical, person) thinking style and underuse Quadrant C (interpersonal, collective). In other words, the Jealousy charge creates a fundamental distrust of relational space. The insight that emerges through soul based leadership work is that this distrust is not a cognitive gap but a charged one. It follows that inclusion of the relational dimension cannot be installed through technique alone. The growth edge for Air-dominant leaders is almost always the Quadrant C ability. In our coaching work, we find this shows up as the capacity to really connect without needing to establish superiority first.
Sphere 5 — Space (universe, positive pole) and Earth return Element. Space, Emotion and Insecurity returning at a higher octave
The outermost sphere returns to the Earth element but at a universal rather than personal level. The Insecurity that appeared as personal self-doubt at Sphere 1 reappears here as the existential question of purpose. Evidently, the leader who has resolved all lower sphere charges encounters a deeper reckoning at this level. Specifically, they face the question of whether their life has meaning beyond their role and their results.
Collins’ Level 5 leader has navigated this sphere. The fierce will and genuine humility that Collins identifies as the Level 5 paradox is what remains. This emerges when both the personal Pride of Sphere 1 and the existential Insecurity of Sphere 5 have been resolved. The will is no longer driven by the need to prove significance. The modesty is no longer performed to manage the Pride charge’s visibility. In our coaching work, we find both emerge naturally from an inner ground that is stable at the universal level.
How the spheres map to Maxwell’s levels
The bond between the energy sphere framework and Maxwell’s five levels is not a one-to-one correspondence. A leader can be at Maxwell’s Level 3 with significant still unresolved charges in all five spheres — the charges are simply not blocking their Level 3 performance yet. The transitions are where the spheres become decisive.
The Level 1 to Level 2 transition requires partial resolution of the Earth sphere. In practice, this means growing enough groundedness to become really interested in others. For this reason, the focus shifts outward from one’s own position and recognition.
The Level 2 to Level 3 transition requires partial resolution of the Water sphere. This, in turn, must produce results through others rather than in spite of them. For this reason, the felt flow that still open Anger blocks becomes a central concern at this stage.
The Level 3 to Level 4 transition requires substantial resolution of the Fire sphere — enough to develop others toward independence rather than toward reliance. For this reason, this is the transition that conventional development most commonly fails to enable.
The Level 4 to Level 5 transition requires resolution of the Air sphere and the deeper layers of the Earth sphere. It follows that only then can a leader move from purpose rather than from identity, from genuine humility rather than from compensatory self-effacement.
The Level 6 capstone is the inside-out level that sits above Maxwell’s five. It is, ultimately, the territory of Space sphere resolution. This means leading from universal purpose, with no personal charge remaining to distort the quality of presence.
How this framework reflects on the other models
Maxwell through the sphere lens: Each of Maxwell’s five levels corresponds to the resolution of a specific sphere charge. Consequently, the levels are not primarily descriptions of behaviour — they are descriptions of inner state. The behaviour follows from the state, not the other way around.
Collins through the sphere lens: The Level 5 leader Collins describes has resolved the Earth sphere Pride charge and the Space sphere Insecurity charge at once. This is rare — not because the character traits are unusual. But because the inner growth path that produces their resolution is rarely engaged at this depth.
Servant leadership through the sphere lens: Servant leadership is the natural expression of Fire sphere resolution. It is, in essence, a central theme in any serious leadership program rooted in soul-based leadership principles. The Attachment charge wants to be needed. When the Fire sphere is resolved, the need-to-be-needed dissolves. In our coaching work, we find that genuine service — which wants others to be free and capable — becomes natural rather than effortful. In other words, the shift moves leadership away from dependency, toward freedom.
Case by case leadership through the sphere lens: The case by case model correctly identifies that different people need different things from a leader. The Water sphere charge (Anger) makes Directing automatic under pressure. The Fire sphere charge (Attachment) makes Supporting automatic regardless of readiness. Resolving these charges is, therefore, what makes genuine situational give possible — not as a technique, but as a natural capacity. In our coaching work, this shift emerges always once leaders address the underlying charges directly.
Belbin through the sphere lens: Each of the nine Belbin roles has a primary sphere association. The Plant and Monitor Evaluator are Air sphere roles — cerebral, comparative, person. The Shaper is a Water sphere role — the force that drives separation from comfortable mediocrity. The Team Worker and Co-ordinator are Fire sphere roles — connective and unifying. An understanding of of which sphere drives a leader’s primary Belbin role explains the strengths and the characteristic weaknesses of that role. In essence, this is evidence we always see confirmed across our coaching work with leadership teams.
Ofman through the sphere lens: The core quadrant always points to the primary sphere. The core quality is the positive expression of the sphere’s energy when it flows cleanly. The pitfall is the same energy when it runs as a charge. The allergy — what you cannot stand in others — is always the shadow of your own sphere’s charge as it appears reflected in someone else.
The journey: diagnostic entry point of soul-based leadership
An understanding of of which sphere carries the heaviest still open charges is the starting point for all inner growth work. The Inner Charges Scan identifies this through a structured journey across six life phases. It maps the weighted impact of charges formed at each developmental stage. Finally, it identifies the soul layer where the inner work has the greatest use.
The Emotion Projection Assessment identifies the current dominant projection. Moreover, it reveals which sphere charge is most active in how the leader relates to others right now.
The Leadership Development Level Assessment positions the leader within Maxwell’s framework. It then identifies whether the primary constraint is at the skill level, the behaviour level, or the inner sphere charge level.
→ Take the Emotion Projection Assessment
Related reading: Leadership level framework — Maxwell’s five levels explained · Leadership advancement framework — the Level 3 to Level 4 transition · Essential leadership capabilities at each level · Power Up Soft Skills · Close Up Energy Leaks
Soul based leadership growth offers a framework for a grasp of why technical skill and strategic intelligence alone rarely determine how far a leader goes. When you begin mapping your five energy spheres, the picture sharpens. Those spheres — physical, felt, mental, relational, and purposeful — reveal a precise view of where your leadership ceiling actually sits. That view shows what it will take to raise it. The leaders who sustain high performance over time are those who invest in this deeper level of self-awareness. And that is the foundation of Soul based leadership growth.