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Key Takeaways:
- Vertical Leadership Development focuses on expanding a leader’s mindset, not just skillset.
- It involves creating ‘heat experiences’, encouraging ‘colliding perspectives’, and promoting ‘elevated sensemaking’.
- This development method complements traditional ‘horizontal’ skill-building.
- It is essential for nurturing leaders who can select and implement effective strategies.
- Effective vertical development requires a balance of challenging experiences, diverse perspectives, and reflective sense-making.
The Evolution of Leadership Capacity
Leadership development is entering a new era where enhancing a leader’s mental framework is as crucial as broadening their skill base. This paradigm shift emphasizes the growth of a leader’s ‘internal operating system’—a process known as Vertical Leadership Development.
Catalysts for Change: Heat Experiences
These are pivotal moments that disrupt a leader’s conventional thinking. They serve as catalysts for growth, compelling leaders to seek new approaches and solutions.
Encountering Diversity: Colliding Perspectives
Exposure to varied viewpoints is a cornerstone of vertical development. It challenges and stretches a leader’s existing beliefs, fostering an inclusive and multifaceted understanding of the world.
Advanced Integration: Elevated Sensemaking
This stage is where leaders synthesize their varied experiences and insights. It’s a reflective phase where new mental models are solidified, enabling leaders to navigate complex landscapes with nuanced understanding.
Implementing Vertical Growth Strategies: Fostering a Culture of Learning and Risk
Embrace a culture where learning is prioritized—even at the risk of failure. Assigning challenging tasks to the least experienced may seem counterintuitive, but it can spark significant growth.
Designing for Perspective Collision
Curate experiences that require leaders to adopt the viewpoints of different stakeholders. Encourage cross-functional peer coaching and develop leaders’ abilities to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously.
Guiding through Elevated Sensemaking
Facilitate leaders’ self-examination using stage maps to identify their current developmental phase and plot a course for advancement. Pair them with late-stage mentors who can offer valuable insights into their growth trajectory.
Combining Vertical and Horizontal Approaches
The most effective leadership development programs will intertwine vertical and horizontal growth, creating leaders who are not only skilled but also possess the wisdom and adaptability to apply these skills effectively. The methods above provide a starting point for the vertical component of a comprehensive leadership development strategy.
In conclusion, the pursuit of vertical leadership development is an investment in the future of any organization. It equips leaders with the internal tools needed to adapt, innovate, and guide their teams through the ever-changing landscapes of modern business. By fostering a growth mindset that transcends traditional skill acquisition, organizations can unlock the full potential of their leaders, ensuring that they’re not just prepared for the challenges of today but are also visionary architects of tomorrow.
