Vertical Development Example #4: Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek 1

Simon Sinek is a leadership guru that is almost a household name in the business world. This is largely because he has the third most viewed TED talk of all time and he is the author of five different business books (my favorite is The Infinite Game). What has allowed him to be so influential? […]

Trauma & Leadership – Part 3 – What are the Secondary Consequences of Trauma?

team at work

In this series, I am making a bold claim that I believe is key to transformationally elevating our leadership effectiveness. The claim is: Leadership ineffectiveness is rooted in leaders’ trauma If this is true, it has a very powerful implication: In order to help leaders significantly transform, we need to help them heal from their […]

The Value of Vertical Development to Leadership Development and Effectiveness

Tom Brady

Vertical development is as essential to leadership effectiveness as Pliability is essential to peak athletic performance What does it take to be the best player that has ever played in one’s sport? It takes consistent top-level performance over a long period of time. Look at Tom Brady. No one would ever say that he is […]

Vertical Development Should Come Before Horizontal Development

Operating System2

Last year, I did a study of 153 organization’s leadership development efforts. One of the things that was revealed was the topics that organizations most commonly focus on in their leadership development programs. Here are the results: Communication & Interpersonal Skills – 72% of organizations Developing Management Skills (e.g., planning & decision-making) – 54% of […]

Gauging Your Vertical Development Altitude – Part 2

In a Relationship With

(If you are already familiar with my vertical development framework, skip down two sections) There are two different forms of development that we can focus on to develop ourselves: horizontal development and vertical development. Horizontal development is increasing our knowledge, skills, and competencies. This form of development is valuable because it allows us to DO […]

Gauging Your Vertical Development Altitude – Part 1

(If you are already familiar with my vertical development framework, skip down two sections) There are two different forms of development that we can focus on to develop ourselves: horizontal development and vertical development. Horizontal development is increasing our knowledge, skills, and competencies. This form of development is valuable because it allows us to DO […]

Vertical Development Mind Levels in Movies

Remember the Titans

Vertical development is an approach to developing a person that focuses on helping them see and make meaning of their world in more cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways. Implicit in this approach is the fact that there are less and more sophisticated ways of seeing the world. I have categorized different levels of cognitive and […]

The Value Difference between Vertical and Horizontal Development

Sharpen Ax scaled

My experience is that nearly all people responsible for developing leaders in organizations are only aware of one form of development: horizontal development. Horizontal development is adding new knowledge, skills, and capabilities to a leader. It is similar to downloading a new app onto an iPad. It is designed to broaden leaders’ functionality, to help […]

The Three Levels of Vertical Development

Mind Levels

Vertical Development Law #1: Different people make meaning of their world with varying degrees of cognitive and emotional sophistication. Vertical Development Law #2: People with greater ability to make meaning of their world in cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways possess greater ability to navigate complexity, be more agile, and lead more effectively. Based upon these […]

Vertical Development – Mind 3.0

Mind 3.0

Vertical development is a form of development that focuses on upgrading one’s internal operating system (i.e., becoming better). It is all about enhancing one’s ability to make meaning in more cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways.

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