Future Leadership Requires Vertical Development

By Kirsten Stendevad, author and leadership developer

The major consulting firms have spotted an apparently lucrative opportunity: developing top executives for the leadership of the future. But a potential disaster lurks beneath the surface. The risk is that businesses will once again invest millions in development programs that fail to create lasting change because they focus on horizontal development—more of the same level of thinking—instead of the vertical development to higher levels of consciousness that the future demands.

Make no mistake: I have deep respect for the 10,000 hours many leadership consultants have invested in their professional development. But being a skilled consultant in the old paradigm—with the ability to sell consulting services at sky-high hourly rates—is not the same as guiding leaders into the future. That requires concrete experience with the higher levels of consciousness that leaders especially must now cultivate.

The conventional consulting life, with long workdays and a constant focus on deliverables, typically leaves little room for the deep personal development and consciousness expansion that future leadership requires. Many offer training in emotional intelligence (EQ), but what we now need also includes the development of organic intelligence (OQ)—a deeper understanding of nature’s principles—and spiritual intelligence (SQ)—the ability to think in wholes and create meaning in apparent chaos.

I was once among those who believed I was a frontrunner, mastering the paradigms of the new era. But in 2012, when I lost my 7-year-old son to cancer, I realized that the logic that had brought me success until then was insufficient for serious crises. To get myself, my family, and my business back on track in this new reality, I had to not only practice my own medicine at a completely new level—I also had to acknowledge that my previous tools were useful but inadequate. I discovered that what was required was not more new inner “software programs” but an upgrade of the very operating system itself. This experience taught me that it is hardly enough to simply add more concepts in an era of polycrises—we must unlearn the old autopilot and learn the art of moving up instead of down—a transformation that can only influence others if you have walked the path yourself.

Through 12 years of research and development, I have identified both a systematic method to become future-ready and catalysts that can accelerate this vertical development process. Hacks that speed up transformation are critical because the world no longer has time for slow, horizontal development. McKinsey’s latest Future of Work report confirms that 89% of top executives acknowledge that traditional leadership methods are no longer sufficient in an AI-driven world.

When choosing a development partner for your executive team, you should therefore look for people who:

• Have experience with vertical development of themselves and others

• Master not only EQ but also OQ and SQ

• Can (teach you to) distinguish between ego-driven and essence-based leadership

• Have experienced the formula for transforming crises into quantum leaps

• Actively work with what AI cannot replace: energy and consciousness

• Can activate both organic and collective intelligence

• Master both worlds—the old and the new—and can act as a bridge

Harvard Business Review’s latest study of 2,000 companies shows that leaders with high consciousness development are up to three times better at navigating VUCA environments (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Goal-setting, initiative, discipline, and teamwork are no longer enough. Future leaders must develop vertically—ideally at the same exponential pace as technology.

Visionary physicist Albert Einstein once observed: “Problems cannot be solved with the same level of consciousness that created them.” The truth is that genuine transformative leadership requires the courage to confront the darkness—our own limitations, fears, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities—in order to see and manifest the light: the higher levels of consciousness where solutions exist.

I have learned that the depth you dare to confront is proportional to the heights you can reach. This offers hope in a world where AI is developing at such an exponential pace that, according to OpenAI, it could replace top executives within a few years. Leaders who have had the courage to awaken their inherent, infinite, original, creative resources will be far better positioned than those relying on linear, horizontal development.

Consulting firms are correct that there is a path forward—one that can be walked safely with experienced guides. A path that unites the best of traditional leadership with the consciousness levels required for the future. A path that transforms pain into strength, fear into action, and chaos into meaningful evolution. But it cannot be learned through PowerPoint slides. It must be practiced—and this cannot happen within conventional boxes, because the manual for the future lies outside them.

Future leadership is not about being perfect, but about being authentic. Not about avoiding darkness, but about using it as a catalyst to reach the light. It is precisely this willingness to encounter the unknown and transform crises into quantum leaps that separates effective, future-oriented leadership development from well-packaged quick fixes.