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Vertical leadership development: from achiever to strategist 

To grow your leadership from achiever to strategist its important to have a checklist to determine what behavior you already do and where there is growth for yourself. Leadership development involves being truthful to ourselves and first becoming aware of where we stand and what we lack to go to the next level.

To really transform I recommend to choose a few behaviors that you want to learn and unlearn and pick a time frame and an amount of actions that you want to take daily or weekly. In such a way the behavior gets into your comfort zone one step at a time and as the time passes, you’ll see that you’re advancing towards a strategist. 

Vertical leadership level 4 – Achiever

  • The focus of the achiever is on hard work and productivity. It resembles in such a way ‘the modern businessman’.
  • The unconscious drive: am I successful? 
  • The expert believes that it’s all about knowledge, the achiever knows that to deliver (strategic) goals it requires teamwork. Therefore, there  is a sense of being a teamplayer
  • A bigger picture thinking than the expert – how can we reach strategic goals?
  • More in touch with the logical and concrete than the abstract or his intuition in business
  • Short term and medium term results are king
  • There is the pitfall of burn-out and exhaustion – because o the mindset hard work leads to results 
  • Additionally, over responsibility and over reliance on rational thinking. Over responsibility means that sometimes mistakes or events are outside of our control, taking responsibility can be a strength but sometimes other factors plays a role and we should be compassionate with ourselves
  • Over rational, many insights cannot be generated by the rational mind: creativity, bonding with people. When we operate only from the rational, we have a shallow compass for our teams and organizations. 
  • Behind rational problems are sometimes difficult root problems. 

Vertical leadership level 5 – Catalyst

  • The catalyst shifts focus from effectiveness to contribution, one of the main questions is ‘why am I here?’ What can and do I want to contribute?’
  • There is a tendency to become more reflective and introspective to search for meaning in work and career
  • This is also the zone where growth happens more than in the achiever zone because the achiever thinks action (or learning how to take different action) improves results. We ignore our deeper potential such as purpose, our unique leadership style and signature and perhaps untapped strengths (and shadow side of our behavior)
  • This is the zone where the capacity to innovate and collaborate emerges. There is more a sense of intuition, seeing yourself and the world in a different perspective and deep listening to others. There is a focus on generating new insights.
  • Because of the deep listening to other people, we build deeper bonds with others as we can hold deeper space – unlike the achiever the central focus shifts from how can we be successful to how can we make contributions that we both have at heart? 
  • Additionally, the catalyst focus more on engaging others, leveraging strengths and mutual creation
  • The pitfalls can be that the catalyst is overly focused on understanding who he or she is. It takes away much time and energy from producing interesting things and at the same time there is no strategic vision yet giving clarity of purpose and vision. 
  • From an ethical point of perspective choice are relative – there is no discernment yet between ethical issues, all are seen as important 

Vertical leadership level 6 – Strategist

  • The strategist is a visionary: envisioning new possibilities.  
  • The mindset is: what can we contribute together to make a difference in the world?
  • There is an awareness of the gifts the strategist has and how to integrate them into the needs of society. Because, there now is clarity of his leadership signature and how a purpose and vision in the world.
  • The strategist has a strategic time horizon and is aware of systems thinking – thanks to his focus on personal and organizational transformation. 
  • There is a pragmatic interplay between strategy, playing different roles in a complex field of relations. 
  • There is an enjoyment in playing different roles as a leader, in different contexts. 
  • Usually works in unique market niches – combining his signature and vision
  • There is an awareness of personal traits and his shadow side. 
  • Ethical choices are based on a firm inner compass and values. There is an ability to articulate them and commit to them. 

Global Leadership Programme

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We hone in on four key areas: organizational alignment, advanced leadership practices, team performance, and personal mastery. With us, you won’t just learn new skills; you’ll embody them.

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About Tom Oor

I’m a Learning and Development Business Partner specializing in creating and facilitating leadership and organizational development programs with global teams. My focus is on Purpose-Driven Leadership and Organizations. We transform business value gaps into impactful learning solutions such as offsites, journeys, and global hybrid programs.

Core Expertise:

  • Accelerating people development for higher returns and faster results
  • Leading high-performance international teams
  • Purpose-driven leadership and organizations
  • Cultivating high-performance cultures

We have worked with amongst others ABN-Amro, Google, PwC, Booking.com, ASML, Scotch & Soda, and Top Employers Institute to design and deliver transformative programs.