Developing your leadership in a Complex World
This month we have been exploring how leaders can flourish in today’s complex environment by undertaking vertical leadership development and this final article before Christmas looks at what to watch out for when developing your leadership agility.
A common error when exploring vertical leadership is to think, “I want to become a leader at the top of the vertical leadership stages”, in other words, an alchemist. In Rooke and Torbert’s[1] work only 1% of the population achieve this level. An example of a famous alchemist is Nelson Mandela — alchemists are unusual and extraordinary individuals and rare to find in the business world. Each stage of development is important and worthy in its own right and it is important not to force it.
An alternative way to approach vertical leadership development is to identify what the organisation requires from you. Ask, “What stage do you need to be leading at to be effective at innovating and transforming the organisation?” The most common shift that leaders wish to make is from the achiever to the individualist stage. Rooke and Torbert found that 30% of their research sample profiled as achievers and 10% as individualists.
What does a shift between these stages bring leaders? Whilst achievers relationships are transactional — they are in charge, enjoying controlling others by giving direction and advice, individualists enjoy bringing change as change managers. They are focused on engaging others, igniting change, collaborating with stakeholders and working across boundaries. It is important to individualists to create an engaging and empowering process.
The move from individualist to strategist is rarer at 4% of the research sample. Strategists have the vision, conviction and presence to generate and sustain transformational change. They lead confidently from the inside out. Mature strategists are authentic, inspiring, collaborative and strategic leaders who are comfortable holding space for the emergence of a transformed world. What does your organisation require from you?
Another common error is to try and move to the next stage of leadership in an expert or achiever ‘tick-box’ way. In other words, to attempt to force the transition without transforming the way that we really think about things, our behaviours and our underlying beliefs. If we force the transition and it isn’t genuine, we will come across as inauthentic, saying one thing but doing another and our followers will soon lose confidence in us.
We recommend that if you are serious about wanting to develop your leadership agility you invest in coaching to support you to do so. The coach’s role is to help you to assess where you are now and where you need to be. A good coach working with an understanding of vertical leadership will support you to see the beliefs, values and mental maps that you currently hold and to examine which are still useful and what may be discarded. Coaches operating from a later stage of development can then enable you to explore how you might view your challenges differently, one stage beyond your current frame, and support you on your journey to the next stage.
[1] [1] Rooke, D. & Torbert, W. (2005) ‘Seven Transformations of Leadership’, Harvard Business Review.
