In 2020, many organizational leaders surveyed their bench strength and discovered they were missing key players — not only to execute their business strategy, but to guide it. With an uncertain future, they needed leaders with a specific skill set: the ability to make decisions without access to all the information. And if those decisions didn’t pan out as expected? They needed leaders who could be agile in the face of ambiguity.
As companies struggle to fill their leadership roles, talent managers are shifting their focus from horizontal development, or acquiring skills, to vertical development. At its core, vertical development expands a person’s thinking capability so they can act in more complex and strategic ways.
Read on for why you should — and how you can — incorporate vertical development into your L&D strategy.
Don’t overlook vertical development
In many organizations, leaders tend to rise within the ranks because they have expertise on a particular topic. They know how to accomplish vital organizational tasks and they have deep technical expertise, so they’re promoted to leadership positions.
When these leaders transition into complex leadership roles, however, they often realize that “what got me here won’t get me there,” and a mindset for technical expertise is no longer sufficient. They realize that when faced with an ambiguous challenge or the need to create an innovative business solution, different ways of thinking and operating are often required: a mindset that matches the complexity of the situation.
I recently worked with a group of senior-level leaders in the health care industry. One participant recognized that his achiever-oriented mindset was alienating members of his team and creating obstacles. In his drive for outcomes, he realized he was missing the opportunity to bring in various perspectives. Once he understood the need to expand his mindset beyond his desire to “get it done,” he was able to facilitate transformational conversations and collectively identify the highest-impact solution.
It’s not that skill development isn’t important; rather, it’s most effective when combined with vertical development. The combination of the two equips leaders to act collaboratively and to find validity in multiple perspectives. Leaders are able to make effective decisions based on ever-changing dynamics, even when they have less information at their disposal.
Help expand mindsets
In vertical development, leaders learn how to move through seven stages, which are referred to as “mindsets,” or “action logics”: Opportunist, Diplomat, Expert, Achiever, Redefining, Transforming and Alchemist. One mindset stage is not better than another; each has value. Moving from one stage to the next requires fundamental shifts in how leaders see and make meaning of the world around them.
In general, both individual leaders — and their organizations — operate from a mindset that is based on how they interpret and react to the world around them. This could be thought of as their “center of gravity.”
While we tend to gravitate toward the action logic where we’re most comfortable, we also have “range,” which helps us to adopt the most appropriate mindset for the situation and context. For example, my center of gravity may be in the Achiever mindset, but my range likely stretches from Diplomat to Redefining.
Here’s an example that explains why leaders benefit from expanding their mindsets: If a COO operates from an Expert mindset, she may be well-served in situations that call for a subject-matter expert, or a specialized knowledge to solve a particular problem. But if she’s in a situation that is ambiguous and without a right answer, she may be better served with a Redefining mindset, one where she’s able to step back and look for multiple possibilities and perspectives, allow for not knowing, and seek out new ways of approaching the situation.
When leaders have access to a greater range of mindsets, they’re better able to manage uncertainty and complexity.
Accelerate vertical growth
When participating in horizontal skill development, leaders generally learn and integrate new skills with ease. Vertical development, or expanding their mindsets, is more challenging and presents more of a process.
Expanding your mindset means understanding your own center of gravity and then pushing yourself to expand your range. Ideally, you have the vertical range to access multiple stages, and within each, you’re able to explore what is working and what is not, as well as how that stage influences your thoughts and actions.
On any given day, a senior leader may embody three or four mindsets, depending on the situation they face. Maybe an Achiever mindset is appropriate for a meeting where the group is trying to meet a deadline, whereas a Transforming mindset is needed to navigate a future strategy session.
Once people become familiar with stages of vertical development, they can be curious about the mindset they bring to situations and begin to cultivate more versatility and adaptability of their thinking and acting.
Bring the heat
In the not-so-distant past, many leadership development courses, including ones delivered by the Center for Creative Leadership, incorporated “heat” experiences, or stretch assignments, designed to challenge leaders. In today’s ever-changing world, however, leaders come to the table with their own heat experiences, from navigating the new hybrid workforce to keeping their businesses afloat during the pandemic.
What do your people do when they experience this everyday heat? Do they hunker down and use muscle memory to get through it, or do they recognize the opportunity that heat provides and grow from it?
Talent managers are charged with helping their employees leverage challenging circumstances and provide support to maximize their learning. If you throw your people into the fire without giving them a lifeline, they’ll flame out — or they’ll get through it in survival mode.
If, on the other hand, you expose them to these seven mindsets and engage them in leveraging heat experiences for development, you can help them expand their range. Heat experiences, combined with seeking out colliding perspectives and engaging in reflection, help accelerate mindset growth. Talent managers who support these three conditions give their leaders a pivotal growth opportunity.
Guide action inquiry
At CCL, our leadership development incorporates “action inquiry,” a term coined by leadership professor Bill Torbert and defined as the habit of continuously questioning, reflecting and adjusting actions — even as those actions are occurring.
In vertical development, action inquiry includes techniques like dialogue, public learning, questioning assumptions, adopting different perspectives, asking powerful questions, giving and receiving feedback, and showing vulnerability.
Action inquiry provides the conditions for growth across stages because it teaches participants how to pause in the moment and tap into their current mindset. This is an in-the-moment pulse check that helps leaders see the full expanse of a situation.
Look beyond skill sets for hiring and promoting talent
Because organizations are struggling to fill critical leadership roles, they may need to promote people into positions for which they lack the role-specific skills. If these leaders have the opportunity to broaden their perspectives through a focus on vertical development, they’re better positioned to meet the demands of their environment.
Talent managers who prioritize vertical development along with skill development grow their leadership bench with clutch players who thrive, even when the stakes are high.
