About Us

Welcome! My name is John Gagnon. I've taken my 35 plus years of management and leadership experience and founded Pathway 2 Leadership. This community is designed for you to learn how you can do it. Not how everyone else did it. Here you will find that it is all about basic leadership development, centered around the everyday person.

My journey began as a young boy aspiring to be like the heroes I’ve seen on the big screen. most of which were military captains, soldiers, and commanders. The bigger than life stars always seemed to be in charge, demonstrating great leadership and demanding respect from all whom they encountered. My dreams were to become a great military leader.

Being the youngest of four brothers put me in a great position to see my older siblings make decisions both good and bad, giving me the opportunity to learn from them.

The biggest inspiration was my brother who joined the Air Force. Seeing his uniform along with the commanding presence it had while he wore it, solidified that that was what I wanted to become. When I was of age I joined the Airforce in hopes to follow in my brother’s footsteps. This was a dream come true and I thought was on my way to greatness like the heroes I saw in my childhood.

The fact is, I was completely wrong. The first thing I learned was that I did not know the first thing about leadership. In fact, boot camp taught me that I really didn't know anything. Once the instructors broke me down and began the process of rebuilding me into a soldier is when I discovered that becoming a leader was first and foremost an incredible amount of work. The first steps I would have to take was to clear my head of my childhood heroes and take a strong dose of reality.

Many years after my stint in the service I found myself working for several companies in leadership positions. Finally I found a home in an amazing company. I realized that in every leadership position I could only rely on the experience and training the military gave me. None of the companies I worked for had a “REAL” leadership training program. They seemed to just pick employees out of a crowd and put them in charge. Sometimes this worked out, sometimes it was a complete failure. The gap between employee and leadership was too great for some, ending in a bad situation, not only for the individual, but for the company and the employees.

I approached the company with the idea that a “Pathway 2 Leadership” program should be initiated, and offered to spearhead the project. The program would be completely volunteer based and would be conducted after hours. Researching through thousands of articles, books and white papers and interviewing several accomplished people in leadership roles. I compiled the foundation and basic principles along with practical real world business concepts. So if you are interested in an opportunity to explore leadership and fundamental business practices, along with the chance to see the inner workings of the management team, this program is for you.

Starting can only begin when you’re ready to step out of your comfort zone, invest in yourself and embark on your Pathway 2 Leadership.