In today’s world, complexity is constant and change arrives quickly. Strategies that once made leaders effective are no longer enough. Success now depends on how leaders think and how they approach challenges.
True transformation comes through vertical learning, the process of developing greater mental and emotional capacity. This type of growth rewires how leaders see problems, recognize opportunities, and guide their organizations through uncertainty.
Horizontal vs. Vertical Learning: What’s the Difference?
Horizontal learning is the form most people know. It involves adding new skills, tools, and frameworks. Leaders might take a course, read a book, or earn a new credential. Each step expands their toolkit, but the way they make sense of the world stays the same.
Vertical learning is different. It changes the way leaders think. Influenced by the work of Robert Kegan and Bill Joiner, vertical learning helps leaders reframe challenges, recognize patterns, and see connections that were invisible before. This development deepens perspective and opens up new ways to lead effectively.
Growth at this level requires reflection, awareness, and sometimes even identity shifts. It often takes place at the edges of comfort, in situations that stretch current capacity and call for new ways of thinking.
Think of It Like Cell Phones
Horizontal skills are like adding more apps, allowing you to do more things. Vertical growth is like downloading a new operating system, allowing the cell phone to run the apps faster and better. Too many apps can slow you down, until you upgrade the operating system
A Client Shift: From Berated to Bold
One leader I worked with felt stuck in a cycle of discouraging conversations with their boss. Each meeting eroded confidence, even though they had plenty of skills and strategies at hand. The problem was not capability, it was perspective.
Before a pivotal meeting, we paused. The leader began to see themselves differently, as an accomplished professional with valuable contributions. This adjustment changed the way they showed up in the conversation. They engaged as a collaborator rather than someone on the defensive. The meeting turned into a constructive dialogue and the relationship began to shift. The tools were the same, but the way of thinking had changed.
How Leaders Grow Through Vertical Learning
Vertical growth does not happen automatically. It requires intention and support. Leaders can cultivate this type of growth in several ways:
Step Into the Heat
Growth happens when challenge meets ability. Research on flow shows that people develop most when they take on situations that stretch them. Leading through a crisis, entering a new market, or managing across cultures are examples of “heat experiences” that push leaders beyond their current habits of mind.
Seek Out Different Perspectives
Insight often comes from friction with other viewpoints. Inviting diverse perspectives, listening to difficult feedback, and engaging in challenging conversations expand a leader’s capacity to see and think in new ways.
Reflect With Purpose
Challenge without reflection creates stress rather than learning. Journaling, structured debriefs, or conversations with peers help leaders connect experiences to meaning. Reflection turns raw experience into wisdom.
Work With a Coach
Coaches provide guidance in ways that go beyond advice. They reveal blind spots, ask questions that reframe thinking, and support leaders in building new patterns of action. In this role, a coach becomes a partner in vertical learning, helping leaders make lasting shifts in perspective and behavior.
The Payoff
Leaders who invest in vertical learning become more than problem solvers. They build the ability to anticipate, design better systems, and lead with greater presence. Teams benefit as well, because leaders who can navigate complexity create environments where people thrive.
Upgrading your leadership operating system through vertical learning transforms not only how you lead, but also how your team and organization grow with you.
