First up - big shout out, acknowledgement and balloons to Adeption, Nick Petrie and Jan Rybeck. They are the people and teams who I’ve been privileged to learn from, work alongside and feel more confident in the work that I do.

They have provided me with heat experiences, spaces for reflection and supercharged my network and colliding perspectives - not sure what I’m talking about - then you are in the right place, sas those things are the cornerstone of vertical development.

Why vertical development?

In a nutshell healthcare needs leaders who can:

• Navigate complexities

• Have adaptive responses to continuous change

• Work wtih diversity

It’s no longer enough to be good at what you do. You need the capacity to see, understand, empathise and respond to ever changing situations, complex scenarios, hold conflicting ideas and do that while holding your own and aligning with your values.

No easy ask.

So what is it?

The best analogy I’ve heard and use to describe vertical devlopment uses a cup.

Horizontal Development is filling your cup with specific skills and knowledge, like learning to delegate, running great meetings or using a RASCI or a GANT chart. These things are important and they matter a lot. Plus there are lots to keep building or adding - leadership is a big thing and we never stop learning.

Vertical Development is making that cup bigger. Increasing your capacity for managing the complexities and nuances that exist. It’s more about how you think than what you think. It’s about expanding your mindset and enabling access to a range of behaviours for the context and setting you are in.

There is a lot involved when you start digging into vertical development and in my nerd out phase I want to share it all. Throwing it all at your, like an endless stream of water balloons. Fun for the first one or two, but not when they go on forever.

So this is by no means all that there is on vertical development. Listen out for Leadership Lounge episodes, more blog posts, and No Jedi emails with snippets and builds on this - your starter for ten.

There are 3 components to developing vertically - and you need all three - it’s not a pick and choose!

Heat Experiences

Moments that are:

• First-time experience

• Chance of failure (success is not guaranteed)

• Results matter

• People are watching / this is public

• It is extremely uncomfortable

Colliding Perspectives

Exposing yourself to opinions, ideas and perspectives that you don’t usually or normally hear.

Building open, diverse and deep networks.

A professional network that supports your future, usually around 15 people.

Reflection

Making sense of your experiences, understanding what’s working and what isn’t. L

Learning new lessons from situations and people

This model gives you practical and concrete ways to expand your thinking and your capacity. It’s also a bit like a map, as you evolve our mindsets develop and thinking changes, expanding (making that cup bigger). If you want to see more of the map and where you currently are, check out the Vertical Mindset Indicator brought to you from Adeption.

If you want to go further, I’m a certified Vertical Mindset Indicator Coach, contact me here and we can set up your assessment and the personalised debrief.