NEW THINKING THAT ADDRESSES ITS COMPLEXITY. WHY MINDSET MATTERS MORE THAN EVER. 

As the 21st Century rolls out we can begin to see that leadership has gained a new momentum. But it’s not what we have always done. 

Firstly, there is an awakening of the importance of compassion in leadership. Leadership is essentially a contributor to a highly effective relationship between two or more individuals. So, the practice is evolving. This is something we have sought to capture in the book “Who Cares Wins”, reassuringly with contributions from thought leaders from around the globe. 

There we introduced the idea that the Mental Toughness concept had a key role to play in enabling this and to support the kind of behaviours that enable true engagement to be realised. 

And there is leadership development. After decades of leadership development programmes that generally promise far more than they deliver, there is recognition of a systemic approach to leadership development. It goes by the name Vertical Leadership. 

What is Vertical Leadership Development? 

I paraphrase an excellent piece from Dede Henley, a Forbes author who runs a highly regarded leadership development consultancy based in Seattle. 

To understand vertical development, it’s helpful to contrast it with horizontal development, which is what we typically think of when it comes to leadership development. Horizontal development is about expanding your toolkit by adding to what you already have. You gain more skills, expand your knowledge and become more competent. These focus on behavioural development. All of these can be measured through a 360°leadership assessment. And they represent what most in the learning provider space have been doing with clients over the past forty years. 

It’s not changed a great deal over that time. 

Vertical development, on the other hand, is about expanding mindset — changing the way you think and through that the way you behave. Vertical development isn’t about training in skills; it’s about transforming the ways leaders approach their challenges and tasks in their heads, which will impact what they do and how they behave. In vertical development, you pay attention to becoming more adaptable, more self-aware, more collaborative and able to span boundaries and networks. 

It ties into Intrinsic Motivation – creating mastery and autonomy to achieve purpose.  

It also describes the mental toughness concept to a tee. The 4Cs concept, very well evidenced,  identifies and describes 8 factors which independently contribute to the way you approach events in your head. 

Henley goes on to observe, “This, as you can imagine, is harder to measure. And maybe that’s why it doesn’t get the emphasis from corporate L&D that it deserves.” 

It may be harder to measure, and it is, but it is possible. The MTQPlus psychometric measure can assess this important personality trait that, unlike behaviour, is largely invisible and can’t be assessed through a 360° assessment. 

What all this does is affirm that leadership is complex and is best developed systemically recognising that leadership is more than knowing how to behave as a leader. 

The mental toughness concept is a key element of that system. 

To know more about Vertical Leadership development read the excellent white papers produced by Nick Petrie at www.nicholaspetrie.com.

To learn more about the mental toughness concept and the MTQPlus measure contact headoffice@aqr.co.uk.

For information about the Mental Toughness concept (and other AQR materials) and for becoming a licensed user of the MTQ suite of measures contact:  headoffice@aqrinternational.co.uk The MTQPlus measure is available in fourteen languages, accessible to more than 2/3rds of the world’s population. Completion of the AQR Licensed user training programme is recognised by EMCC and ICF for CPD purposes.