When performed with skill and artistry, coaching generates radical transformation. It is a major catalyst for leadership development at a time when leaders must operate with extraordinarily high levels of awareness in dealing with both people and tasks.
As the complexity of today’s organizations increases, effective leaders must not only learn new skills, but more importantly they must engage a path of personal development that moves them along a continuum of ever -growing self-awareness.
“A butterfly is not an improved caterpillar; it is a whole new creation.”
– Blaise Pascal, French philosopher
As individuals evolve from one stage to the next, they have a growing ability to reflect and think deeply; they have a longer line of sight; and they are more innovative. Each level provides different values, priorities, and abilities, and each stage has corresponding behaviours.
The thread weaving through the entire concept of Adult Stages of Development is the ever-increasing capacity of a person to be self- aware, to be able to reflect and think more deeply – evoking a shift:
- from “me” to “we”
- from competition to collaboration
- from being efficient tacticians to effective strategists
- from conflict to communication
- from silos to systems
- from rigid thinking to innovative thinking
- from hoarding power to empowering others
- from lacking direction to a clarity of vision
- from dealing with difficult people to creating meaningful relationships
- from spinning out of control to successfully delegating and managing priorities
Leadership development moves an individual along a continuum of growth where the attention moves from concern about self and job, to interest in the team and department, to an understanding of the entire organization to a view of the overall industry to an interest in one’s community and eventually one’s country and then the entire world.