Transforming Your Leadership Culture

58 TRANSFORMING YOUR LEADERSHIP CULTURE

Development and Leadership Logics

Various researchers have categorized the individual stages by
which adults tend to function. Some suggest as few as three sepa-
rate stages and others as many as nine. The logics in the right -
hand column of Table 3.1 were conceived by Bill Torbert, one of
our closely allied learning partners (McGuire, Palus, and Torbert,
2007). Bill calls his seven adult developmental stages “ action
logics ” because each represents a certain consistency of actions
or behaviors based on the development - level mind - set by which
individuals interpret their surroundings. We worked with Torbert
in correlating our three stages of culture (or leadership logics)
with his seven (leader) action logics. Our stages also correspond
with other developmental theorists (see Appendix A). Of these
logics, Rooke and Torbert say:

Most developmental psychologists agree that what differentiates

leaders is not so much their philosophy of leadership, their per-

sonality, or their style of management. Rather, it ’ s their internal

“ action logic ” — how they interpret their surroundings and react

Table 3.1 Leadership Logics and Leader Logics

Leadership Logics Leader Logics

Interdependent -
Collaborator

Transformer: shape - shifter, imaginer, alchemist
Collaborator: partner, both - and, strategist
Transitional Freethinker Rising
Independent - Achiever Freethinker: initiator, nonconformist,

• individualist
  Performer: winner, high fl ier, * achiever
  Transitional Specialist Rising
  Dependent - Conformer Specialist: technician, niche connoisseur,


• expert
  Moderator: pleaser, confl ict avoider, * diplomat
  Dominator: authoritarian, manipulator,


• opportunist

Note: The asterisk signifi es Rooke and Torbert’s (2005) descriptive terms.