Do You Lead with Control or Do You Lead with Context?
On of the best leadership books that I have read is No Rules Rules by Reed Hoffman (Netflix CEO) and Erin Meyer. The book is about how Reed Hoffman has created a high-performance culture and organization (Note: the examples and figures in the post either come from or are inspired by No Rules Rules). In […]
Leader: You Think You Are Right, But You Are Probably Not as Right as You Think
There was a study of crew coaches (the rowing sport you have probably seen in the Olympics) that confirms several fundamental premises of vertical development: A leader’s vertical altitude dictates what they focus on and prioritize What feels right at one vertical altitude will feel wrong when we operate at a different vertical altitude Specifically, […]
The Vertical Development Half Steps: Mind 1.5, Mind 2.5, & Mind 3.5
Vertical development is a process of personal development that focuses on upgrading our body’s internal operating system.
How to Create Candor
Candor is a willingness in an organization to communicate in an unreserved, honest, sincere, and forthright way.
Why Organizations Need Vertical Development
Organizations are increasingly recognizing that the complexity of the world their leaders are facing exceed their abilities to effectively navigate this complexity. The consequence of this is that most leaders are operating at a leadership deficit, with consequences that include exhaustion, burnout, turnover, and poor decision making.
How Many Value Creators Do You Have In Your Organization?
When I talk about the difference between horizontal and vertical development, I generally present the following figure as a way to depict their different foci: I was recently challenged by two colleagues to try to create a figure with horizontal development on the X axis and vertical development on the Y Axis like so: The […]
What Context Struggles to Create Space for Learning? The Workplace
I want to share with you an excerpt from Decoding Greatness by Ron Friedman that I found incredibly powerful. He writes: Growth requires strain. A moderate degree of difficulty is essential to both mental and physical development. Teachers know it. Bodybuilders know it. Athletes know it. Yet what’s the one place where stretching our limits […]
What Mind 3.0 Leaders Do to Actualize Transformational Change – Part 2
There are three modern business leaders that I have studied that: Are great examples of being Mind 3.0 (i.e., highly vertically developed) leaders that… Have actualized transformational change in the organizations they led. These leaders are: Alan Mulally (Ford) – see American Icon Ed Catmull (Disney Animation) – see Creativity, Inc. Satya Nadella (Microsoft) – […]
What Mind 3.0 Leaders Do to Actualize Transformational Change – Part 1
There are three modern business leaders I have studied that: Are great examples of being Mind 3.0 (i.e., highly vertically developed) leaders that… Have actualized transformational change in the organizations they led. These leaders are: Alan Mulally (Ford) – see American Icon Ed Catmull (Disney Animation) – see Creativity, Inc. Satya Nadella (Microsoft) – See […]
The Four (Justifiable) Fears That Limit Value Creation
There is a difference between making progress and creating value. I think that organizations and their leaders and employees are often more focused on making progress than they are on creating value. Let me use a metaphor to articulate the difference between making progress and creating value. Making Progress vs Creating Value For this metaphor: […]
