Vertical development is one of the most powerful levers we have for helping leaders and people grow—especially in a world defined by complexity, ambiguity, and constant pressure.
And yet… it can be a tough sell.
Not because the idea isn’t good, but because the experience can feel abstract (“What does this mean?”), academic (“Is this a theory lesson?”), or threatening (“Are you saying something is wrong with me?”).
If you want vertical development efforts to land more effectively with leaders, managers, team, and people, start here:
Your first job isn’t depth. It’s acceptance.
Acceptance creates safety. Safety creates openness. Openness creates traction.
Below is a practical, coach-ready approach for helping people accept the need for vertical development in a way that feels approachable, relevant, and energizing.
The core principle: Make it feel familiar, non-shaming, and doable
Vertical development becomes approachable when a person feels:
- Relief (“Oh… that’s what happens to me under pressure.”)
- Relevance (“This will help me with my real challenges.”)
- A first step (“I can do something with this right away.”)
Everything that follows is designed to create those three experiences.
1) Start with lived experience, not a lecture
If you open with definitions or developmental theory, you risk losing people before you’ve earned their attention.
Instead, start with what they already know: the moments where they don’t like how they show up.
Use prompts like:
- “Where do you get pulled into a version of yourself you don’t like?”
- “What situations shrink you—conflict, uncertainty, urgency, politics, complexity?”
- “Where are you effective… but not proud of how you’re being?”
These questions work because they immediately convert “vertical development” from a concept into a felt need. They also help you anchor the work in their reality, not your framework.
Coach move: Ask for one specific situation from the last 7 days.
Then explore: What happened? What did you feel? What did you do? What was the cost?
2) Normalize the struggle: “This isn’t a flaw. It’s default programming.”
Most resistance to vertical development is actually resistance to shame.
If someone hears, “You need to develop vertically,” they may translate that as:
“I’m not enough.”
And once the nervous system hears that, learning shuts down.
So normalize it early and explicitly:
- “This isn’t a character flaw. It’s default programming.”
- “Under pressure, all of us get pulled into protective patterns.”
- “The goal isn’t to judge the pattern—it’s to upgrade what happens automatically.”
A helpful way to describe this is:
- Your best leadership lives in your “high-road” brain.
- Your most common leadership under pressure comes from your default brain.
- Vertical development is upgrading the default.
Coach move: Use language that reduces threat:
“We’re not diagnosing you. We’re identifying what reliably shows up under pressure—and expanding your options.”
3) Make the “why” obvious by naming the real costs (without blame)
Leaders often think: “I’m doing fine. I get results.”
And they might be right—at least on the surface.
The key is to make the hidden costs visible in a way that feels clarifying, not condemning.
A simple approach is to explore the four common “cost zones” leaders fall into:
- Results are fine, but culture is suffering
- Results are fine, but the leader is suffering
- Results are suffering, but culture is fine
- Results are suffering, and culture is suffering
Then ask:
- “Which box are you in more often than you’d like?”
- “What pattern puts you there?”
- “What does it cost you—your team, your energy, your influence, your trust?”
Coach move: Keep it clean and non-judgmental:
“This isn’t about being a bad leader. It’s about seeing the tradeoffs your default creates—so you can reduce the unnecessary ones.”
4) Offer a definition that builds trust (not confusion)
Some leaders worry vertical development is code for therapy, softness, or “navel-gazing.”
So define it in a way that’s practical and performance-relevant:
Vertical development is building the inner capacity to stay in value-creation mode under pressure.
It helps people maintain effectiveness when the environment is complex, uncertain, emotionally charged, or high-stakes.
That definition tends to land because it:
- feels relevant to real work,
- doesn’t sound clinical,
- and directly connects to leadership effectiveness.
Coach move: Immediately connect it to their complexity:
“Where do you lose access to your best judgment or best self—because the pressure hijacks you?”
5) Reduce identity threat with the “range” frame
Even when leaders agree that growth is valuable, they often fear:
“If I develop vertically, will I lose my edge? Will I become less decisive? Less driven?”
This is where “range” is your friend:
- “We’re not changing who you are; we’re expanding your range.”
- “You don’t lose your edge. You gain range.”
- “You keep what works—and reduce the protective behaviors that limit you.”
Range framing prevents vertical development from feeling like “becoming someone else” and reframes it as:
being more effective across more situations.
Coach move: Make it concrete:
“We’re keeping your strengths. We’re just helping you stay grounded, clear, and constructive in the moments that currently pull you off center.”
6) Make the first step so small it’s hard to resist
Approachability isn’t just about emotional safety—it’s about effort.
If vertical development feels big, long, or overwhelming, people disengage.
So set the bar low and clear:
One insight + one rep.
- Identify one default pattern that shows up under pressure.
- Choose one small behavior shift to practice once this week.
That’s it.
Coach move: Treat the first step like a “pilot,” not a transformation:
“We’re going to run one small experiment this week—not to be perfect, but to learn what happens.”
A simple first-session flow you can use with almost anyone (30–45 minutes)
- Start with lived experience (the “version of yourself you don’t like” moment)
- Normalize (default programming, not a flaw)
- Name the cost (results/culture/leader wellbeing tradeoffs)
- Define vertical development simply (value-creation mode under pressure)
- Reduce threat (expand range, don’t lose edge)
- Choose one small next step (one insight + one rep)
Leaders leave feeling seen, not judged—and with a clear reason to continue.
Closing thought
Vertical development becomes approachable when it stops feeling like a theory and starts feeling like a pathway back to effectiveness—especially in the moments that matter most.
As a coach or consultant, your early win is helping people say:
- “This makes sense.”
- “This applies to me.”
- “I can do this.”
That’s acceptance. And acceptance is the gateway to everything that comes next.
