Chapter 8
The Aware Leader: Supporting
Post-Autonomous Leadership Development
Abigail Lynam, Geoff Fitch, and Terri O’Fallon
Introduction
In this chapter we share research and learning from Pacifc Integral (PI)’s 15 years
of designing and facilitating the Generating Transformative Change (GTC) pro-
gram; a developmentally informed and research-based leadership development
program. We address our approach to working developmentally with leaders, the
application of the STAGES developmental model, and the research that informs
and guides the program’s curriculum. In greater detail we examine the develop-
mental transition between Strategist and Construct Aware (Cook-Greuter, 2013;
O’Fallon, 2016) and the implications for leadership practice and development.
We explore the unique challenges and opportunities of this developmental transi-
tion and the practices and processes that support it. We conclude by sharing prin-
ciples and practices for working developmentally with leaders, including pitfalls
and challenges, and the ethical perspectives that guide the work.
Leadership and Adult Development
The last 50 years of adult development research have provided considerable
insight into the way adults grow, mature, and learn. Understanding these pat-
terns of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, ethical, and spiritual development have
signifcant implications for leadership practice and development (Kegan & Lahey
2009; McCauley, Drath, Palus, O’Connor, & Baker, 2006; Reams, 2017; Torbert
et al., 2004). The general developmental trajectory includes the widening of cir-
cles of identity, care, and responsibility, and increased capacity for perspective-
taking, engaging with complexity, systems thinking, difference, and uncertainty.
Patterns of thinking develop from either/or thinking to both/and, contextual
thinking, and to one within the other paradoxical or interpenetrative thinking
(Cook-Greuter, 2004; Lynam, 2014; O’Fallon, 2011). These developmental tra-
jectories are relevant for today’s increasingly complex global challenges, as well as
rapidly changing and interconnected contexts for life and work.
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Maturing Leadership: How Adult Development Impacts Leadership, 171–189
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doi:10.1108/978-1-78973-401-020201010