• All over the world (e.g., U.S., Germany, Australia, Canada, Taiwan),
•  At organizations that range from small to large multinationals (e.g., Deutsche Telekom, Experian, Mondelez, CVS Health, TekSynap, Colorbiotics, CertaPro Painting franchise owners), and
• In different industries (e.g., banking, technology, manufacturing, service, medical)

Through this experience, I am able to compare and evaluate executives across a wide variety of contexts, leading to a variety of observations, including the following:

1. Just as people vary in their ability to garden effectively, executives vary in their ability to lead effectively
2. There is one dysfunction that most commonly holds executives back from effective leadership

In this article, I want to:

• Reveal this dysfunction
• Provide insight into how typical leadership development approaches are not helpful in addressing this dysfunction
• Identify a more cutting-edge approach to addressing this dysfunction

The Most Common Executive Dysfunction
In most organizations, aspiring leaders are formally and socially incentivized to produce outcomes and results, and the employees who produce the most and best outcomes and results are rewarded with promotions. These incentives fuel the most common executive dysfunction that I see in executives: They operate as doers and not leaders.

These executives have been conditioned to step up, solve problems, fight fires, and get the job done. They have effectively been “wired” or “programmed” to operate in this way, and when they have, they have been valued and recognized within the organization.

But, if an executive operates in a manner that they are always stepping up and in to solve problems, fight fires, and get the job done, they are not operating as a leader or an executive, they are operating as a high-performing individual contributor. And, this wreaks havoc on the organizations. The most common consequences are felt by the people and teams they lead in disengagement because of micromanaging; high stress because of the number of fires that pop up; and little sense of responsibility, which leads to a high degree of escalation.

And, what makes this dysfunction so challenging is that generally the executives see operating in this way as a strength to be valued as opposed to a dysfunction that is causing chaos.

How Most Leadership Development Approaches Seek to Resolve this Dysfunction
If we are being honest, most leadership development programs do not take this dysfunction head on. And, when they do, they view this dysfunction as a knowledge or skills issue.

When a dysfunction is viewed as a knowledge or skills limitation, the typical approach for development is a form of development called horizontal development. Horizontal development is a focus on improving knowledge and skills so that leaders can do more. It is like downloading an app onto an iPad. This is good in that it might broaden one’s functionality, but it doesn’t change the wiring and sophistication of the iPad.

Let me clear, there is not an “app download” for the shift from “doer” to “leader.” This is because this dysfunction is not an “app problem.” It is an “operating system problem.”

The Only Way to Resolve This Dysfunction
If we want to help executives make the shift from “doer” to “leader,” we need to employ a different form of development than what is typical. This form of development is called vertical development.
Vertical development does not focus on helping leaders do more, it focuses on helping leaders be better. The formal definition of vertical development is: elevating leaders’ ability to make meaning in more cognitively and emotionally sophisticated ways.

To go from “doer” to “leader,” we need to help executives elevate their cognitive and emotional sophistication (i.e., upgrade their operating system) to the degree that:

• Their value doesn’t come from “doing,” it comes from facilitating the “doing”
• They create space for those they lead to learn, fail, make mistakes, and put out fires
• They don’t have to be the one providing all the answers, instead they are able to shepherd and guide those they lead through thought-provoking questions
• They don’t prioritize short-term outcomes or results, instead they prioritize cultivating the right conditions for those they lead to be successful in both the short- and long-term

Employing Vertical Development
If you would like to learn how to employ vertical development for your organizations’ current or aspiring executives, let me invite you to my session at the 2023 California HR Conference. You can register now at www.cahrconference.org.
I look forward to seeing you in Long Beach, May 8-10.

Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a cutting-edge leadership development author, researcher, and consultant. He helps organizations vertically develop their leaders primarily through a focus on mindsets. Ryan is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership and The Elevated Leader: Leveling Up Your Leadership Through Vertical Development. He is also a leadership professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton. For more information about vertical development, visit my website at www.ryangottfredson.com.