Leadership Development: Where Now?

Session Submission Type: Panel Discussion

Short Description

Vertical development is a bundle of approaches, theories, and practices that are very promising for leadership development, offering an important perspective on how leadership develops in discontinuity through different stages. It suggests we are part of a transformative process moving upward, but then how do we understand the changes in public leadership? Is the more authoritarian shift a progress in leadership development or a regression? Panelists will highlight two well-known vertical development approaches — The Leadership Circle Profile and the Global Leadership Profile. Aiming to surface implicit views of development and explore explicit assumptions that guide leadership development, the panel will engage with the audience to answer: If these theories offer a direction of development — are we really moving forward?

Detailed Abstract

Vertical Development is a bundle of approaches, theories and practices that are very promising for leadership development in turbulent times. It offers a good perspective on how leadership develops in discontinuity through different stages. Each stage builds on the previous stage, adding new possibilities and capabilities for leadership. Developmental theories describing different stages of development have been used for example for the development of societies (Habermas 1995) the development of human consciousness (Gebser 1986) and the development of the Individual. While it was common to understand the move from early childhood to adulthood as development in different stages, different stages of personal development in adulthood were seen in the 1980‘s as possibilities for human development (Kegan 1982, Loevinger 1976). This thinking had a good influence on leadership development because adult development theory was able to explain how a person achieves the capability to deal with a greater amount of complexity, which is key for leadership in turbulent times (Cannon et al 2015, Hughes 2014). Researchers developed instruments that measure a leaders development which have become popular in the last years (Petrie 2014).

In the panel discussion we want to show that different approaches of vertical development share a common understanding of leadership development. While they measure Leadership development according to their definition of development they are build on a more or less implicit view of development. They underpin a shared inherent logic of adult development. We want to make the values of this inherent logic explicit and discuss the findings with colleagues. This could be a shared vision of what the developmental goals of leadership development are and how leadership development may contribute to the unfolding of a greater human potential.

We assume that the theory of vertical development shows stages of development we share as an orientation for the developmental work we do. If this is true: how do we understand the changes in public leadership we see in different countries in 2016 and 2017? Is the more authoritarian orientation a progress in leadership development or do we see regress? Is the ,swing of the pendulum‘ moving to another side? Are we in a transformative process moving forward? If we use vertical development as a map for leadership development what is the shift we need to make?

To show the inherent logic of leadership development we will present the Leadership Circle Profile as a popular 360 Feedback tool (Anderson 2016) that builds on Robert Kegan‘s Theory of adult development and the Global Leadership Profile by Bill Torbert and Action Inquiry Associates (Torbert 2004) that builds on the theory of ego development by Jane Loevinger.

Introduction to the presentation. 10 Min.
Presentation of Global Leadership Profile and inherent developmental logic. 15 Min.
Presentation of The Leadership Circle Profile and inherent developmental logic. 15 Min.
Discussion of shared goals of Leadership Development. 25 Min.
Discussion of sense-making of actual Leadership Crisis. 25 Min.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Development

Chair

• Sara Willms, willms.coaching

Presenters

• Johannes Willms, willms.coaching

• Jolanda N. De Ridder, Global Leadership Transformation