Improving “skills” is not the same as increasing emotional intelligence (“EQ”). EQ involves processing emotions that influence our decisions. An effective leadership mindsets consists of strategy and long-term solutions. To become such a leader, you must improve the development of your EQ.
Accepting and becoming comfortable with one’s core emotions are key steps. Another is engaging in thoughtful leadership mindset development. With them, you’ll better understand your own personal growth journey. Better yet, you’ll even be assessing how to invest in your development!
The Two Main Leadership Mindsets of Emotional Intelligence
This blog post analyzes two essential leadership mindsets: Horizontal and vertical development. Firstly, what are they? What are their principles? The levels of methodology? Most importantly, how can leaders use these two for success with EQ?
What Horizontal Development Creates Time for Leadership
Horizontal development assists leaders in expanding their knowledge and skills. In fact, horizontal development accounts for 90-95% of all leadership development initiatives. The most prevalent form of growth, it allows those who use it to accomplish more than they could before.
The following are two analogies that help bring it to life:
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- Adding water to a cup to make it more full or complete
- Adding a new app to an iPad to expand its capabilities
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Both these actions increase productivity and enable leaders to do more with their time.
How Vertical Development Creates a Smarter Leadership Mindset
This leadership mindset is not for any organization wanting a “quick fix”. Vertical development entails assisting leaders in thinking through complex and uncertain situations. It focuses on assisting leaders in becoming stronger. Just like we did before, we can visualize this concept with metaphors:
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- Making a cup itself bigger, rather than adding more water to fill it up.
- Upgrading an iPad model, rather than installing a new app on the older version.
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Overall, understanding personal evolvement in stages clarifies the main principles of vertical development. It’s about cultivating more complicated and nuanced ways of thinking, as well as increased knowledge and clarity. Moreover, because it is built on “stages” of thought, vertical development is the workplace mindset requires leaders to harvest new methods attitudes to make business strategies successful.
When Two Become One: Helping Leaders Develop Mindsets Based In Competency and Capacity
In summary, vertical development emphasizes capacity; horizontal development emphasizes competency. When comparing the consequences of the two, it’s fair to assume the following conclusion: Horizontal development produces incremental growth. In contrast, vertical development leads to transformational growth.
Both are meaningful and valid. Both aim for leadership achievement.
However, the phrases “vertical” and “horizontal” are not without their flaws. “Vertical” implies a simplistic view of leadership capacity. In it, there is a clear route of development which glosses over potential declines. This runs the risk of devaluing one end of the development spectrum. Similarly, “horizontal” distinguishes competency from the effect of our action-logic.
Nevertheless, combining both vertical and horizontal techniques for development is beneficial. Merging them would only raise the likelihood of a successful outcome. It would also directly play into our instincts as humans: We never stop learning and growing as leaders. As a result, we get new skills and a more nuanced and complete decision-making style.
And let’s not forget how often it’s been said: Two heads are considered by most to be better than one.
Actions We Can Take For Both Our Emotional and Our Leadership Mindset Development
As leaders, what are our options?
Firstly, we can put our competencies (skills, talents, and so on) to use. We can also improve our self-awareness and communication by forming collaborative partnerships and diversified networks.
It’s a balance: We use experience and technical competency to complete tasks with horizontal development. Vertical development, on the other hand, allows for the use of knowledge in unexpected situations.
So, the best leadership mindset can truly put more focus and effort into its productivity. It must encourage themselves and others to grow vertically – to improve the person’s ability to solve challenges creatively and agilely.
Taking risks! Evaluate yourself. True, it may all seem frightening in the moment. Yet, it may pay off in the long run – better than one can ever have expected.
Take the chance, then; become the self-assured leader you were meant to be! Go to my main website or call me at 781-608-1966 – Direct/Text! With an approach that best suits you, you’ll develop the leadership skills best suited for you!
