Adult development for high potential tech leaders

This article covers a framework to assess and monitor the growth of highly developed teams. Adult development psychology from business and neuroscience disciplines are reframed into a format intended for high potential tech team members – especially engineering, design and product leaders. #leadershipdevelopment, #teamdevelopment, #adultdevelopment, #organizationalpsychology, #personalgrowth, #techleadership, #productleadership, #designleadership, #highpotential, #professionaldevelopment

Only 15% of people are able to unlock their potential into the highest half of adult development “action logics” – “how they interpret their surroundings and react when their power or safety is challenged” [1]. Unlocking higher levels of action logics in leaders can enable organizations capable of self-management, intuitive reasoning, decentralised decision-making, wholeness, and a deeper sense of purpose [4]. Such organizations are often called “Teal Organizations” [4, 5]. Leaders with high levels of action logics have rare abilities to expand one’s mindset to process increasing complexity (often called “vertical” stages of development [2, 3]). These vertical stages complement the common stages to process competence (often called “horizontal” stages of development [2, 3]).

Figure 1 shows a reframing of adult development stages [1] with an intention to minimize  judging of action logics raised by Sandra Ellison [2] and include the unitive action logic raised by Debra Doroni [3]. Vertical rows span action logics from Opportunist to Unitive, with characteristic summaries of each action logic level. An example Opportunist characteristic could be an engineer coding software in a quick-thinking, decisive way to fix a crisis. At the other end of the vertical development spectrum, an example Unitive characteristic could be a design visionary who is empathetically mindful of all global constraints in a non-judgmental, detached and tolerant way. Horizontal columns in Figure 1 represent the typical development of competence as an engineer, design or product manager professional advances their skills, knowledge and abilities from novice to expert levels within the profile mindset of a particular action logic.

Figure 1: Vertical and Horizontal Adult Development Stages

Figure 2 shows how vertical adult development typically caps at a particular level. A person who’s capable of profiling at a particular action logic can effectively profile at any lower level. However, the person will typically not be able to understand or appreciate higher levels. For example, a Product Manager profiling at Level 4 “Achiever” may be an expert, action-oriented manager of software processes. They will also be capable of being a skilled technical expert, a collaborative team player, cooperative, opportunistic, adaptable and other characteristics of Opportunist, Diplomat, and Expert levels. Carrying the examples from Figure 1, this product manager will likely be able to understand the engineer’s interpretations and reactions, but the designer’s may seem confusing, unrealistic and undesirable to this product manager because the action logics have not yet been unlocked as a process of lifetime adult development.

Figure 2:  Example Vertical Adult Development Capped to Level 4 “Achiever”

Acknowledgements:  This article results from many discussions and materials from the 2024 Q4 cohort of the Harvard Executive Leadership Coaching mastery session – in particular, discussions with instructor Deb Doroni, instructor Betsy Cox and master leadership coach Satoshi Yamamoto. 

[1] Rooke, D., & Torbert, W. R. (2005, April). Seven Transformations of Leadership. Harvard business review.  https://hbr.org/2005/04/seven-transformations-of-leadership

[2] Ellison, S. (2020). Understanding vertical development. Ellison Consulting Group. https://www.academia.edu/43225798/Understanding_Vertical_Development

[3] Doroni, D. (2024). Adult Development Stages. Debra Doroni Leadership Partners LLC.  https://www.debradoroni.com/

[4] Laloux, F. (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness. Nelson Parker. https://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Organizations-Frederic-Laloux/dp/2960133501

[5] Teal Organizations (2024, Oct 31). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal_organisation