Vertical development: cultivating mindsets, emotions, and habits to lead effectively

The lesser-known field of adult development psychology, often called vertical development, is at least as important as neuroscience for truly understanding how we and others tick, how to get the best out of people, and how to navigate difficult situations. Vanessa Dietzel and Laura Watkins suggest some exercises that will help us build “muscles” for vertical development.

 
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many leaders were operating in complex environments, facing change, uncertainty and competing interests. The pandemic has pushed all of us – formal leaders or otherwise – into unchartered and often turbulent waters. How can we match our capacity for dealing with complexity to the complexity of today’s challenges?

Modern neuroscience has given us important insights for helping our brains cope with challenge. For example, when our protective, fight-flight-freeze survival response is triggered, activity in many parts of the brain’s executive centre decreases, lowering our quality of thinking, problem solving and emotional regulation— just when we need it the most. Being aware of when our brain is in protect mode and knowing how to get it firing on all cylinders again (what we call explore mode) is, therefore, essential for making the most of our current knowledge, skills, and experience.

However, we believe that the lesser known field of adult development psychology, often called vertical development, is at least as important as neuroscience for truly understanding how we and others tick, how to get the best out of people, and how to navigate difficult situations. When drawing on both fields, we not only help our brains bring their best in the moment, but also grow our best over time.

 
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Πηγή:blogs.lse.ac.uk