Posts
The development from one stage to the next does not happen all at once. Transformation may take years to unfold. Without practice, shifts from stage to stage do not happen. But, interestingly, when shifts occur, they are always associated with the emergence of significant new capability.
The research also shows that people seldom regress to a previous level. This is good news. We do not go back because the new order of consciousness transcends the limits of the old order; it is better matched to the demands of the world. It simply works better.
To describe each stage in much detail is beyond the scope. The interested reader can .
What follows is a cursory overview. Do not be misled by the short emphasis given here. The developmental framework given below has profoundly significant implications for leadership and organizational development at the deepest levels.
Robert Kegan is perhaps the most noted authority in the stage development research. He is an author and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
THE EGOCENTRIC SELF
The development of the egocentric self involves many stages of development from birth up to and including adolescence. Since the focus of this paper is on adult leadership, all these stages are condensed into one.
The limit of this structure of identity is that it does not notice other’s (often-competing) needs. It is egocentric. I relate to the other to get my needs met and don’t yet know how to make your needs important to me.
This stage ends with adolescence, a time of transition where I learn how to pursue my wants and needs within a larger system of competing needs. It is a difficult time because something is being lost, my egocentric relationship to the world. The world does not revolve around me and what I want. I need to give up my egocentric agenda in order to take up membership in society. The adolescent does not yet know that this shift will actually aid him in achieving what he wants within a larger system.
Research suggests that 5% of adults do not fully make this transition and operate in the world as an egocentric self. Leaders at this stage tend to be very controlling, if not dictatorial, “My way or the highway.” Employees at this stage tend to play out victim or rebel roles. Organizations that operate out of a culture organized at this level are dictatorial and oppressive.
THE REACTIVE SELF
Most of us successfully make it through adolescence and become well functioning, effective citizens. We spend a significant part of our adult life at this stage. We take up a role in a larger society and identify ourselves with our role. The new structure of the self can be articulated, as “I am my role.” At this stage, the self is made secure and valuable by belonging to and succeeding within prescribed socially accepted roles. In this structure, we build a life, often very effectively.
This is the structure referred to as the Reacting Stage in all The Leadership Circle literature. The limit of this structure is the unnoticed equating of my self with what I do, what I am good at, and/or how I am accepted by others.
At this stage, I usually do not notice how my goals and behavior are actually predetermined by others or by the culture. I am defined from the outside in. My vision appears to be self-authored, but that is only because I do not yet see the extent to which I am following the dictates of cultural conditioning (as voiced by significant others: parents, bosses, spouses, norms, rules, etc).
As such, I am not yet free to follow the call of my own soul. I may hear the call and either ignore it, write it off as not possible, or respond in a compromised or overly ambitious manner. Fear gets in the way.
Leaders at this level usually no longer function as dictators; they often care deeply about the employees they manage and function as the benevolent parent. The organization is hierarchical and efficient.
Employee input is solicited, but decision-making and creative expression is still vested in the top. Leadership is often humane but lacks the capability of broadly sharing power.
Approximately 70% of adults function at this stage and within the transition to the next stage.
THE CREATIVE SELF
Transitioning to the Creative self is the major transition of adult life. This is the structure of the self that is referred to as the Creating stage in all The Leadership Circle Literature.
Only 20% of adults in our culture fully complete this journey. To make this transition, we no longer ignore or distort the call of the soul.
We face the fact that following our own path often means disappointing others, risking failure, and/or otherwise contradicting the norms that link me to society and make me (as a Reactive self) worthwhile and valuable.
This transition is particularly difficult because to make this journey, I have to let go of how I have come to define my self. I let go of the deeply held beliefs that my worth and value is tied up with what I do. I am no longer defined by cultural expectations. Now, I configure a self from the inside out for the first time. Vision springs from within. Action becomes an authentic expression of an emerging sense of inner purpose. As I begin to see and experience the power, creativity, freedom, and satisfaction of living from my own deep center, I also value and encourage that in others. I begin to treat others as equal participating members, whose rights, insights, and purposes need to be engaged and creatively aligned.
Self-expression and cooperation become our new organizing principles.
Leaders at this level begin to share power. It is no longer perceived as “letting go” of
- LEVELS OF SELF/WORLD DEVELOPMENT
- UNITIVE
- INTEGRAL
- INDEPENDENT (Creative)
- SOCIALIZED (Reactive)
- EGOCENTRIC
The development of self and others is prized. Organizations are structured on high-performing, self-managing teams.
Leadership is shared but not yet a true partnership.
Creativity and critical decision making is developed and expected at all levels of the organization.
THE INTEGRAL SELF
Only about 5% of adults develop to this stage. However, another 5 to 10% are in transition to it.
Here, the inner self-definition shifts from “I am a whole and complete self that coordinates with other whole and complete selves” to an internal realization that, in fact, “ I am not whole and complete.” Rather, I am many selves.
This is not schizophrenia, but a deeper engagement of the shadow side of the self, the parts of me I have ignored and not developed.
Shadow does not mean dark or bad, but ignored or left behind. As Jung said, “Most of the shadow is solid gold.”
There are many undeveloped strengths in the shadow. These undeveloped strengths often present as weaknesses and darker elements of the psyche.
Consequently, as I move into this stage I realize, to paraphrase Pogo, that I have met the enemy — and he/she is within me.
I no longer need to pretend completeness and can move toward the unacknowledged aspects of myself with compassion and curiosity. I am now able to hold the whole complexity of my personality, the good and the bad, the light and the dark, the hard and the soft. I can see this inner complexity without flinching or needing to engage in some strenuous self-improvement regime. I see others this way — as complex multidimensional beings. I also see the world this way — as a dynamic interplay of forces.
Seeing the self as a rich ecology of discord and harmony opens me to the richness and complexity of the workplace and the world.
Leaders at this level become systemically and community oriented.
The workplace becomes a self-renewing organization where members are true participating partners. The legacy of the leader is connected to developing the organization into a vehicle for service to a larger constituency. The organization is seen as a network of stakeholders nested within a larger system of networks.
Vision often becomes global and oriented toward service to human welfare. Sustainability and long-term common good become salient values. This is the level of servant leadership.
THE UNITIVE SELF
Research strongly suggests that spiritual practices such as meditation and contemplative prayer accelerate the development.
What is clear from experience and research is that, the Unitive Self, seldom, if ever, develops without a long-term spiritual practice.
The Unitive stage is not just one stage. It is a series of stages/phases that are well defined and described in the world’s Wisdom Traditions.
At the Unitive stage, another major shift takes place. Up to this point, the self has seen itself as a separate self, as located within the body-mind.
Now the self realizes that “I am not the body, nor the mind.”
In the early phases of the Unitive stage we identify with the
soul — a soul in communion with the Divine.
The integral self is not dispensed with. That richly nuanced self is used to act in the world. It is functional, a useful tool of the spirit.
Further into the Unitive Stage, the astonishing oneness underlying and just behind diversity becomes obvious. This is the stage where the person ecstatically experiences the world as one.
This oneness is not just an idea; not something gleaned from a book.
It is a literal experience of oneness with life itself—the oneness of all things with Itself. This is the birthplace of universal compassion; for one knows, “I and my brother, and my sister. The earth and all beings are one life.”
In the later phases of the Unitive Stage, the mystical union goes beyond relatedness itself. Now there is only the One Divine Conscious Light that I Am and as which all things arise. This is Divine Union where the self is so absorbed in the Self that there is no other. There is only One.
Leadership from this level of being seems to be rare, although it becomes more available through long-term integral practices. It is important to note, that Unitive development does not mean disengagement from the world. Quite the contrary, Leaders at this level function as global visionaries. They enact world service for the universal good.