── ── Cognitive bias
Manager Development Spectrum
Most leadership programs target skill acquisition. They work for Achiever-stage leaders and are ineffective above it — not a design failure, a category error. Stage development requires transforming the interpretive logic itself, not adding capabilities within it. Rooke & Torbert's longitudinal research (2005, HBR, n=4,500) identified seven sequential Action Logics. The framework's key claim: developmental mechanisms are stage-specific — what…
How it works
Output: Action Logic Stage Profile + Blindspot Statement + Developmental Move Plan
Stop rule: If self-reported stage and behavioral evidence diverge by >1 stage, stop and address assessment conditions first.
1. Gather behavioral evidence from responses to: (a) challenge to authority, (b) public failure, (c) expertise questioned by someone less experienced. See stage table in the Method in Action file for behavioral indicators per stage. 2. Name the stage-characteristic blindspot — it must feel slightly uncomfortable to the subject, not theoretical. (Opportunist: trust is long-run asset. Diplomat: harmony over truth. Expert: right answer is context-dependent. Achiever: hitting goals may be hitting the wrong goals. Individualist: collective action gap. Strategist: time for others to catch up.) 3. Select the stage-specific developmental move — must be concrete and schedulable. Expert → Achiever: outcome ownership where expertise alone cannot succeed. Achiever → Individualist: projects that succeed by metric but fail by meaning. Individualist → Strategist: personal development as leadership method applied to own org. 4. Design the feedback structure — must be illegible to the current stage's dismissal reflex. Experts dismiss non-experts; Achievers dismiss non-results-linked feedback. 5. Set a 90-day behavioral reassessment — look for new responses to challenge, new blind spots visible, previous-stage behaviors becoming optional. No change at 90 days = wrong mechanism, return to Step 3.
When to use it
- a promoted manager is failing without clear cause
- someone says 'leadership training isn't working'
- a leader asks 'why can't I get to the next level'
- an org wonders why its best performers plateau after promotion
- a coach needs to match development intervention to a specific individual
When not to use it
the issue is a skill gap (new manager needs how-to training, not stage diagnosis); the timeline is weeks (stage development takes months to years).
Worked example
Abraham Lincoln's Trajectory from Opportunist/Diplomat to Strategist (1834–1865)
Abraham Lincoln's documented political development is one of the most primary-source-rich examples of multi-stage Action Logic progression available in pre-20th-century leadership history.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skills