Beena Sharma: The New Age of Leadership Development

Today, Commander Divine speaks with Beena Sharma, international consultant and president of the Vertical Development Academy.

Beena has worked for more than two decades in the area of whole-system, large-scale change. In this episode, Beena discusses polarity thinking, how language affects our reality, and the difference between horizontal and vertical development.

Key Takeaways:

We are entering the age of vertical development. Vertical development fosters essential growth of new perspectives and gives leaders a greater ability to handle the complex problems of our changing world. Fortunately, we can now measure how an individual grows through these stages of maturity thanks to assessments like the ones provided by the Vertical Development Academy.

We need both horizontal and vertical development. While horizontal development gives you more knowledge, information, skills, credentials, and certificates, it doesn't fundamentally change any assumptions you have about yourself. It doesn't challenge any beliefs you have about how the world works.

Vertical development, on the other hand, recognizes that you have certain beliefs, and that you’re invested in and identify with certain assumptions. And then these get challenged over time because of life experiences. How can a MAP assessment help?

The MAP (Maturity Profile) assessment analyzes our developmental anatomy. It shows us how language reflects development, how we express our meaning-making, and what we see in the world through language. 

This then reveals what we are aware of, what we're not aware of, and the hidden beliefs and assumptions that we hold. By challenging those beliefs and assumptions, we can open up to new perspectives. Our new psychological development models mirror ancient spiritual traditions.

Traditionally, the Eastern spiritual and wisdom traditions have talked about unitive consciousness. And now, we have a model that mirrors the stages of consciousness for psycho-emotional development, which is a fascinating and valuable parallel. 

The paradox of polarities. Polarities are tensions or interdependent values that we struggle with. Sometimes, we pick one value over the other thinking one is better than the other. But as we grow, we realize that it's not this or that; it's both. It's like inhaling and exhaling; we have to both inhale and exhale to live and breathe. You would never be able to pick one, because you need both to survive. So, not all problems are problems that can be solved. Sometimes it’s not about solving a problem; it's just about harmonizing, integrating, and managing both sides of the spectrum.

Don’t let labels box you in. In early stages of development, we like to orient ourselves by boxing ourselves in and labeling ourselves as a “type” (i.e. “I’m a thinking type” or “I’m a feeling type”).

This is helpful to a point. But as we grow, we continue to define ourselves in more expansive ways, until we eventually arrive at the style of no style. This is where you’re not bound by anything and you can be anything, because you realize that your conditioning has been keeping you in a box.

This happens systematically and progressively, and it can sound like a tall order. But it’s the process.

We all have the potential for unity consciousness. The idea of seeing others as the enemy is a very early stage idea. Many of us grow through that and recognize that it’s a limited way of viewing the world. And so our circle of embrace expands. While this might never happen for some people due to life circumstances and a lack of inner and outer resources, it has the potential to grow in every human being. In fact, it’s our birthright.

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