Vertical Development made simple, clear and practical
While much valuable content exists on this topic, often its practical implications and applications are obscured in academic language. Here we aim to make this complex theory easily accessible and practically relevant for leaders, coaches and L&D practitioners, while preserving its rigour and constantly offering you resources to dive much deeper if you wish.
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Challenging the ‘VERTICAL’ in Vertical Development: less ‘stairway to heaven’ and more ‘piano playing’
One of the strongest (and most frequently mentioned) criticisms of vertical development theories and approaches (and perhaps the reason certain scholars in the field avoid the term ‘vertical’ altogether) is the implicit hierarchy. It is easy to be seduced by the notion of fixed stages, unfolding in a pre-determined way.
While vertical development is indeed a pre-requisite of mature leadership, there is no golden recipe for growing through the stages, nor does inhabiting a later stage automatically guarantee mature behaviour. Vertical development is less like climbing stairs and more like playing the piano, where the magic comes from technique (horizontal development) and breadth of notes and octaves (vertical development).