Most of us only really know one development path.
It’s the one we’ve been on since school:
- Read the book
- Take the course
- Get the certification
- Add another tool to the toolkit
This is horizontal development—gaining more knowledge and skills. It’s like downloading another app onto your iPad. Helpful, sometimes necessary, but it doesn’t change the speed, stability, or sophistication of the device itself.
There’s another path most people don’t know exists—and even fewer intentionally take:
Vertical development: upgrading your internal operating system.
Instead of focusing on what you know or can do, vertical development focuses on how you see, process, and relate—your mindsets, meaning-making, and emotional wiring.
Horizontal development is incrementally helpful. Vertical development is transformationally helpful.
And yet, the more I teach people and leaders about vertical development, the more I have observed something interesting:
Even when people are clearly presented with the vertical development path, most initially resist stepping onto it.
So I’ve been wrestling with this question:
What gives someone enough of a “kick” to finally step onto the vertical development path—and into vertical development coaching?
After years of research and coaching, here’s the pattern that keeps emerging:
Very few people embark on vertical development purely out of curiosity or ambition. Especially at first, they need a kick. That kick is what is called a heat experience.
What Is a Heat Experience?
A heat experience is friction in your life that pushes you to ask deeper questions and seek new perspectives.
It might show up as:
- A situation that exposes the limits of your current approach
- Emotions you can’t just “manage” away
- A role that outgrows your usual strategies
- A setback
- Feeling stuck
- Not reaching the level of success or impact that you desire
The event itself isn’t what makes it “heat.” What makes it heat is that you come to recognize that your current way of seeing and responding to your working is not as effective as you need it to be. You reach a point where you quietly admit:
Something in me needs to change—not just something around me.
That’s often the moment you become ripe for vertical development.
Six Signals You’re Ripe for Vertical Development Coaching
Based on my research and experience, people usually become open to vertical development when at least one (often several) of these are present:
1. You See “Higher-Minded” Leaders—and Want to Be More Like Them
You start noticing people who operate at what I call a higher “Mind 2.0” or even “Mind 3.0” level—more courageous, grounded, curious, and value-creating. You’re drawn to the way they show up, especially under pressure. You want that same internal stability and external impact.
That attraction is often the first nudge that your current operating system is ready for an upgrade.
You start to get the sense of: If I am going to reach my goals, I am going to have to stop playing it safe.
2. You’re Losing Faith in “Your System”
You begin to realize: The system (e.g., your organization, your family, your boss) isn’t going to deliver the life, opportunities, and impact that you want. Generally, this shows up in you feeling increasingly let down by others or by different organizational entities.
In this place of feeling let down, stuck, or up against a ceiling that you come to the realization that if you want a dream life, you are going to have to take the initiative to create it.
You come to realize that it is time to put on your big-kid pants and get your hands dirty.
3. You’re Experiencing Boredom, Irritability, Burnout, Depression, or Anger
These aren’t just random emotional storms. Often, they’re signals of misalignment between:
- The complexity of your world, and
- The current capacity of your internal operating system
If you are not feeling fulfilled, good! Welcome to the club! That is most people.
Here is why this is “good.” Feeling negatively about our situation is almost necessary for us to recognize that we can’t wait around for our world to become more favorable, we have got to change ourselves to better navigate our unfavorable world.
4. You’ve Been Promoted or Thrown Out of Your Depth
A new role or responsibility often exposes our limits—limits we were previously unaware of. You realize that you can’t just work harder or lean on expertise—you have to hold tension, navigate competing demands, and lead through ambiguity.
In other words, your context has grown more complex, and it’s demanding a more vertically developed you.
5. You’re Encouraged by a Leader You Trust (and Feel Safe With)
Sometimes the “heat” arrives through feedback:
- “You’re good. You could be great—but that will require deeper inner work.”
- “Your skills aren’t the issue. It’s more about your mindset or presence.”
If this kind of feedback lands as both challenging and true—and there’s enough psychological safety—you may be standing right at the doorway of vertical development.
6. You’re in Programs That Stir Up Self-Awareness and Questions
You might be going through:
- 360-feedback
- A leadership program
- A mindset or vertical development assessment
- A book or workshop that really gets under your skin
Instead of just checking the box, you find yourself:
- Reflecting on the insights days later
- Feeling uncomfortably seen
- Asking, “Why do I keep reacting this way?”
That questioning means the heat is already working on you.
Which Path Forward Are You Choosing?
When the heat shows up, you have choices:
- Settle & hold onto the status quo
Ultimately, you choose safety, security, and comfort. - Double down on horizontal development
Take another course, get another certification, add another tool. Unfortunately, this likely won’t take you where you need to go. - Step into vertical development
Look inward, examine your mindsets and internal operating system, and upgrade how you see and engage with the world.
What option is going to get you where you want to go?
What My Vertical Development Coaching Is Designed to Do
If you want to choose the vertical development path, I want to help you. That is why I have developed my Becoming Better Coaching Program.
This program is built to help you:
- Learn what vertical development is and why your internal operating system (your Being Side) matters more than ever.
- Awaken to your current vertical altitude—how you’re wired to see, process, and respond.
- Elevate into a more grounded, courageous, and value-creating way of being.
We do this through:
- Targeted assessments and feedback focused on your mindsets and patterns
- Deep self-exploration to surface and shift limiting internal wiring
- Practical experiments and support as you embody a higher level of functioning
The goal isn’t to fix you. It’s to help you upgrade you.
Your Next Step
If, as you’ve read this, you’ve thought:
- “This is me.”
- “I’m feeling that heat.”
- “The way I’ve always operated isn’t enough anymore.”
…then you’re likely ripe for vertical development coaching.
If you’d like to learn more about my Becoming Better Coaching Program—how it works, who it’s for, and whether it’s a fit for you—either:
- Check out my webpage,
- Sign up for my Free Information Webinar on 12/2 @ 9:00 a.m., or
- Reach out directly
I am excited about a more elevated you!
