Adult Development and Organizational Leadership

By: Lisa Lahey and Robert Kegan

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Synopsis: What will distinguish your leadership from others' in the years ahead? The authors of this chapter believe it will be your ability to develop yourself, your people, and your teams. They apply adult development theories-debunking the belief that the human brain slows in its ability to adapt and learn by the age of thirty-to the concept of leadership development. They argue that the field has overemphasized "leadership" and underemphasized "development." Consequently, the incubator necessary for effective leadership development-namely, the human brain and its ability to achieve greater and greater levels of mental complexity as it matures-remains unaddressed. They describe three age-related plateaus in adult mental development: the socialized mind, the self-authoring mind, and the self-transforming mind-and use compelling graphs and study results to show how the unique characteristics of each plateau might play out amidst the everyday demands of leadership. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 26 of "Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice: A Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium."