Traditionally it’s been thought that adults only grow by essentially learning more stuff. If you take the analogy of your mind being a cup, it would be like pouring more information, more skills, more experience into the cup.
Research has shown us that this traditional approach to learning - also known as Horizontal Growth - is only one aspect of your potential to grow over your lifetime.
You may already have a sense of this intuitively if you've ever had an experience where just because you knew what to do didn’t mean you were actually able to do it.
For example, maybe you’ve been in a situation where you knew your plate was already too full and you should just say "no" to your colleague’s request to help out on yet another project… but you just couldn’t bring yourself to say it.
Or maybe you desperately want to maintain a calm, collected demeanor at work but every time you have to attend one of those frustration-inducing, death-by-committee meetings you just can’t help but lash out.
Either way, you've discovered that the person you’d like to be in those moments is just not accessible.
In both of these examples, the issue is not a matter of not knowing what to do, there's simply a lack of capacity to execute on what you know. This is where Vertical Development is needed.
Returning to the analogy of the cup, Vertical Development is a process akin to expanding the size of your mental cup so you have more choices available to you in every moment. It’s a metamorphosis that fundamentally shifts how you see the world, how you operate in it, and how deftly you can engage with any challenges that arise.
If you want to be different - more strategic, more calm, more confident, etc - Vertical Development is essential.
Take a look at how others have transformed their performance through Vertical Development.
How does Vertical Development work?
While learning (horizontal growth) can take place during a passive event such as listening to a presentation or reading a book, vertical development is an ongoing process that requires active engagement and experimentation with new ways of being, regular reflection, exposure to diverse perspectives, challenging your current ways of thinking and support for making sense of the world in new ways.
Regular coaching sessions with a vertical development coach provide the space for getting up on the balcony to reflect, having your thinking challenged, considering different perspectives, support for making sense in new ways as well as coming up with your next iteration of experiments to run in between sessions.
It can also be helpful to take a vertical development assessment, such as the Global Leadership Profile, to provide you and your coach with an indication of your current stage of development and insight into which interventions will be most supportive of your growth.
The impact of Vertical Development
Here are a couple of recent examples of what vertical development resulted in for two of my clients.
A business owner wanted to ‘get out of the weeds’ of working in her business and get up ‘on the balcony’, to play a more strategic role and shift from the business running her, to her running the business. We worked together to increase her trust in herself and reduce the self-doubt and second-guessing that was holding her and the business back. The outcome for her was a lift in team performance, greater confidence in herself and industry leading business performance in her country, even amidst the challenges of the pandemic.
A corporate executive in one of the world’s leading infrastructure technology companies wanted to “slow down to speed up” and create more time ‘on the balcony’ in order to enable the business to move faster. We worked together to scale her leadership capabilities enabling her to more effectively lead ever larger, globally dispersed teams. By creating clearer boundaries, delegating more and developing the ability to more easily say ‘no’ when needed, she ultimately achieved greater balance across her commitments. Our coaching sessions provided her with the much needed space to get calm, clear and get to the insights to achieve the step change she was looking for.
Curious to explore what investing in your vertical development could do for your own leadership?
When is a good time for leadership development?
If you’re wondering when the best time to focus on your continuing professional development is, consider the following. Is it time to:
bust out of the rut you've felt stuck in for far too long?
step up and demonstrate that you have what it takes to lead your organization?
stop putting off 'til tomorrow the changes you want to have in your life?
listen to that gnawing voice inside you that says you could be playing a much bigger game?
turn your attention towards building your legacy?
If so, you’re in the right place and that time is now.
How can leadership development help?
Leadership development supported by professional coaching can help you to:
accelerate changes that you've been dreaming about
get an unbiased, external perspective on yourself and your situation
feel more confident making difficult or important decisions
create the space for strategic thinking and reflection (ie working on your career or business and not just in it)
have a softer landing for that big change you want to make.
Even if you…
...think you're too busy.
Reflective coaching can give you strategic thinking time enabling you to make proactive decisions that will help you become more effective and productive overall.
...are worried coaching will be 'woo-woo'.
As a former engineer and Finance & Economics management consultant, I can assure you that my coaching approach has a sound scientific basis. My methodology is research-based, drawing on adult stage (vertical) development and complexity theory, neuroscience, positive psychology and high-performance sport.
...are doubting your ability to make a change or that coaching would really be of any real help.
I've worked with a number of people who started coaching with some level of doubt and were surprised how quickly they saw results. If you’re open to trying new things and stretching yourself, let’s talk. And if I really don't think I can help you, you can trust that I will let you know.
To read more about Vertical Development and its impact, check out these articles:
You can explore more blogs here and read some of my published work here.
If you’d like to talk about your continuing professional development, drop me a line.
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