The Leadership Shift © :
The DevelUpLeaders Approach
Why Most Leadership Development Fails—And How We're Different
Walk into any leadership workshop and you'll learn skills: how to delegate, how to communicate vision, how to give feedback, how to influence stakeholders.
These are important skills. But here's what the industry won't tell you:
Skills alone don't make you a better leader.
You can master every leadership technique in the world and still find yourself:
-
Micromanaging despite knowing you shouldn't
-
Controlling outcomes when you meant to empower
-
Defending your position when you wanted to collaborate
-
Proving your worth when you intended to inspire
Why? Because 85% of leadership challenges don't come from lacking skills—they come from your internal operating system.
Vertical Development: Transforming Your Leadership Operating System
Get to Know Us
Here's where real transformation happens.
Vertical development isn't about learning new skills—it's about fundamentally changing how you see yourself, your team, and your role as a leader.
Based on research by Bob Anderson and Robert Kegan, leaders operate from one of two internal systems:
Reactive Leadership (Where Most Leaders Get Stuck)
What It Looks Like:
Controlling: You feel responsible for every outcome, so you micromanage, check every detail, and struggle to delegate because "it's faster to do it myself."
Protecting: You defend your decisions, avoid vulnerability, keep your guard up, and see challenges as threats to your competence or position.
Complying: You focus on meeting others' expectations, pleasing stakeholders, avoiding conflict, and maintaining harmony even when bold action is needed.
Why It Happens: These patterns developed because they worked when you were earlier in your career. Controlling got results. Protecting kept you safe. Complying helped you advance.
The Problem: What worked as a manager creates a ceiling as a leader.
Creative Leadership (Where Executives Operate)
What It Looks Like:
Relating: You build authentic connections, foster collaboration, develop people, and create environments where teams thrive together.
Self-Aware: You understand your impact, seek feedback openly, acknowledge your limitations, and lead from authenticity rather than proving yourself.
Achieving: You inspire others to execute your vision, create alignment around goals, and drive results through people rather than despite them.
Purposeful & Visionary: You see the bigger picture, articulate compelling direction, make strategic decisions, and lead with clarity about where you're taking the organization.
Systems Thinker: You understand interconnections, anticipate downstream effects, navigate complexity, and lead beyond your direct control.
Why It Works: Creative leaders inspire movements. People want to follow them. Teams execute their vision without constant oversight. They shape culture, not just manage tasks.
Skills without mindset transformation: You learn delegation techniques but still micromanage under pressure. You know you should empower people but revert to control when stakes are high
.
Mindset transformation without skills: You shift how you think but lack the practical tools to translate that into action. You want to inspire but don't know how to communicate vision effectively.
Vertical + Horizontal together: You transform who you are as a leader AND build the capabilities to execute from that new operating system. The shift sticks because it's supported by both consciousness and competency.
Why Both Dimensions Matter
The DevelUpLeaders Framework™
Vertical Development:
-
Identify your reactive patterns (controlling, protecting, complying)
-
Release the limiting beliefs driving those patterns
-
Develop creative competencies (relating, self-awareness, achieving, vision, systems thinking)
-
Transform your leadership identity and presence
Horizontal Development:
-
Master all 5 Power Skills through practical application
-
Build proven frameworks and tools you use immediately
-
Develop measurable capabilities that drive results
-
Create systems that amplify your impact
The Timeline Advantage:
-
Natural vertical development: 7-15 years through trial and error
-
With our integrated approach: 3-5 years of accelerated transformation
-
Why faster? Because we address root causes, not just symptoms
Built on Proven Research
Our approach integrates:
-
Bob Anderson's Universal Model of Leadership™ - Mapping the journey from reactive to creative consciousness
-
Robert Kegan's Adult Development Theory - Understanding how leaders evolve through stages
-
EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence - Measuring and developing emotional competencies
-
19 Years Fortune 500 Experience - Real-world application at the executive level
What This Looks Like in Practice
Foundation & Growth Programs focus primarily on horizontal development:
-
Build the 5 Power Skills systematically
-
Develop practical frameworks and tools
-
Create measurable capability improvement
-
Position for greater influence and impact
Shift & Elite Shift Programs integrate vertical + horizontal development:
-
Transform your leadership operating system (reactive → creative)
-
Master advanced application of all 5 pillars
-
Complete The Leadership Shift from control to inspiration
-
Accelerate from Director to C-Suite readiness
Most leadership development teaches you what to do differently.
We transform who you are as a leader—and give you the skills to make it sustainable.
The result?
You don't just learn new techniques. You become a fundamentally different kind of leader—one who inspires teams to execute your vision without your constant oversight, shapes culture rather than just manages tasks, and leads from authentic influence rather than positional control.
Ready to make The Leadership Shift?