The world needs leaders who can lead us into the future. This leadership deficit is well documented, but anecdotal evidence from emerging markets suggests that the leadership vacuum is even larger. Typically, it takes over 15 years to build the capacity of a senior manager in Europe. In Africa, we don’t have that luxury; we need leaders now.

 

The following comments show how dire the situation is:

 

• Only “5% of leaders in the West operate with the mental and emotional capacity needed to manage complex, systemic change and reliably generate organisational transformation.” (Brown, 2012). 

 

• “The level of complexity of the world right now requires different ways of being from leaders. We used to think leaders needed certain skills or competencies to succeed. Today, I think people see more clearly that leaders increasingly need capacities like the ability to hold more ambiguity, uncertainty, and further perspectives.” (Garvey-Berger, 2009).

 

• “There is a clear gulf between the difficulty of upper-level management jobs and the ability of individual humans to meet those demands.” (Lectica, n.d). 

 

• “There is a pressing need to increase our collective abilities to face and effectively work with complex challenges. And without a foundational shift in human values and leadership capacities, external solutions to our global challenges may be limited, too slow or short-lived.” (Inner Development Goals, n.d).

The Problems with Traditional Leadership Development Programmes 

Organisations have employed leadership/management development programmes to speed up leader development. However, we see that these traditional programmes leave leaders ill-equipped for the real-world complexity they face today. 

 

 

1. These programmes are often shrink-wrapped and not tailored to organisational culture and strategy.

2. They tend to focus on one area of skills development rather than leverage across several leadership competencies and ways of being.
   
3. They focus on learning things rather than how to learn, supporting horizontal rather than vertical development.
   
4. They can be based on outdated models of leadership/management that are more relevant to the past rather than the future.
   
5. The impact of these investments is notoriously difficult to measure.

 

So, how do we prepare our leaders to lead in the future? How can our investments support leaders across the different areas in which they work, including executing well, shaping cultures, designing innovative strategies and products, harnessing inclusion towards strategic imperatives, and responding to the complex regulatory environment in which we operate? 

 

Lastly, how can we measure the return on investment (ROI) in a way that predicts leadership performance?

 

We believe that the answer lies in supporting leaders to mature.

The Relationship Between Maturity and Leadership Capacity

A wealth of rigorous evidence supports the idea that later-stage leaders perform better in senior leadership roles. Brownlow (2022) cites 74 research studies that validate this. 

 

Key areas where later-stage leaders perform better include:

 

• Greater self-knowledge and capacity to self-regulate. Leaders at later stages understand their impact more fully and can adapt as a result. They can also manage their energy output more strategically and effectively.

 

• Ability to work with qualitative data and values. This enhances one’s ability to shape culture, strategy, and innovation more effectively.

 

• Capacity to understand and work with multiple perspectives. This allows later-stage leaders to build a more inclusive culture and harvest the benefits of a richer internal ecosystem for customer access, product development and strategic innovation.

 

• The capacity to read and work with longer time frames and broader strategic horizons allows leaders to better understand the broader system, predict future changes, and take advantage of opportunities as they emerge rather than afterwards.

 

• Improved political savvy and capacity to shift a system. Later-stage leaders use their understanding of the system, its flows and blockages, as navigation aids. They know where to expend energy, how to do it, and how long it will take to create shifts. This skill is invaluable, especially for multinationals and government agencies. 

 

• Capacity for deeper and more meaningful win-win relationships with suppliers.

 

• Enhanced moral leadership leads to more solid and sustainable businesses, cultures, and brands.

 

The benefits of having later-stage leaders lead your organisation are substantial. Yet the question remains: How can we enable these maturational shifts?

How We Support Leaders to Mature

Maturational developmental processes expand an individual’s capacity to think, act, feel, and lead at later, more complex levels. This is not a process of simply adding new skills and knowledge (something you’d find in a typical business or management programme). 

 

Aephoria’s programmes support the enrichment, growth, and agility of leaders’ inner worlds, so they can find more effective ways of responding to the world as it is now. 

 

We have fine-tuned our methodology over the past 13 years and collected significant data on what works and what does not. We know that the following experiences structured into a leadership development programme will create maturational shifts:

 

• One-to-one and group developmental coaching.

 

• Feedback experiences with leaders in the organisation.

 

• The use of personality and maturity typologies to improve self-understanding and growth.

 

• Linking personality and maturity with organisational strategic imperatives.

 

• Disorienting dilemmas, heat experiences, polarity work, or working with stuckness to create new narratives and worldviews.

 

• Stretch projects that require a shift in ways of thinking and working.

 

• Action research to implement the learning.

 

• Creative projects that take participants out of their left brains.

 

• Spiritual experiences, including mindfulness work.

 

• Somatic work.
  

However, to truly create lasting change, these programmes need time. Ideally, they should run for nine to twelve months, though six to seven months is the minimum. This gives participants the space to absorb new ideas, reflect on their personal growth, and apply what they’ve learned in a way that sticks. 

 

Combining intellectual challenges, personal coaching, and practical application ensures leaders develop new skills and shift their mindset and capacity for long-term success.

The Benefits of Aephoria’s Maturity Development Programmes

Our research shows that Aephoria’s contextual, tailored programmes have the following impact:

 

• They accelerate leader development.

 

• The impacts occur across participants’ lives.

 

• They build momentum for continued, longer-term growth.

 

• They guide people beyond linear, qualitative thinking.

 

• They provide an easily measurable ROI.

Accelerates Leadership Development

Leaders grow through real-life experiences – projects that fail, difficult stakeholder engagements, staff turnover, and more. While these are critical to building maturity, we can’t wait for years of trial and error. Businesses need leaders who are ready now. That’s where maturity development programmes come in. 

 

We provide a container that accelerates growth through nudging, challenging, supporting, and coaching participants. Action research projects allow leaders to test new knowledge and adapt it to the organisational context. Learning is then shared within the group.

 

“Maturity is a long-term journey – a process – not a state. On average, people spend seven to ten years in a maturity stage. But if you create the right enabling environment (with some constraints around it), you can fast-track that. That’s what maturity development programmes offer.” – Dr. Julia Kukard.  

Guides Participants Beyond Linear, Quantitative Thinking

Maturity development helps leaders move beyond just numbers and spreadsheets. It’s not about learning to process more data or making decisions in a black-and-white way – it’s about expanding their ability to think fluidly, adapt, and handle uncertainty with ease.

 

For example, leaders who embrace maturity development are less likely to feel threatened by differing opinions or criticism. Instead, they use these diverse perspectives to make more informed, balanced decisions that benefit the organisation. This ability to move beyond black-and-white thinking allows them to address challenges creatively and make decisions that lead to better business outcomes.

Impacts Occur Across Participants’ Lives 

Maturation does not affect only one segment of a person’s life. When we mature, ripple effects occur in work life, leadership life, home life, parenting, personal development, and more. We have even noticed changes in participants’ debt and money management capacity. 

 

A significant shift is that people at later stages have more agency and take more responsibility for their career planning, performance, education and opportunities. This is useful to human resources and the organisation as a whole. 

 

Participants also highly value this holistic development because it stays with them for life, not just in their current organisational context.

Contextual and Tailored 

A development intervention shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. It must be tailored to the organisation’s specific needs and aligned with its values and strategy. Every sector is different and has its unique challenges. Our maturity development programmes cater to this by tailoring content, providing action research projects in situ and making the link between individuals and organisational values, strategy and culture.

 

This tailoring allows programmes to work on difficult problems facing the organisation, such as market decline, growing sectoral obsolescence, or adapting to new stakeholders. It is also where radical and potentially disruptive innovations can be explored and tested. 

Builds Momentum for Ongoing Longer-Term Growth

Unlike traditional management development programmes, which focus on outer skills, “our programmes make shifts in the inner worlds that build their own momentum to continue to grow and learn over time,” says Dr. Julia Kukard. 

 

Aephoria’s programmes are tailored to an organisation’s specific context, values, and strategic goals, allowing them to be integral to broader culture change initiatives. This is about reshaping how leaders think and act, which impacts the organisation and even society as a whole.

 

“What we do is part of a transformation of the organisation and society; it’s not isolated to an individual. That’s because if you have a group of leaders who mature, they can potentially change the system and structures around them. Thus, the system matures.” – Lucille Greeff.

Provides an Easily Measurable ROI

Maturation shifts are like planting a seed that continues to grow and evolve over time. Rather than just filling a cup with new knowledge, maturational development programmes actually make the cup bigger, allowing leaders to handle more complexity and uncertainty. 

 

This aligns with the Inner Development Goals (IDGs), which map the leadership shifts required to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and create a sustainable future for our planet. 

 

At Aephoria, we measure maturity levels before and after the intervention. This provides an ROI for the programme and gives insight into how the leaders will grow over the longer term.

Case Studies: Maturity Development Programmes in Action

 

1. A company had implemented scaled agile processes, where leadership’s need for control caused the system to break down. By helping leaders let go of rigid control and adopt more flexible, mature mindsets, we enabled the organisation to function more effectively and avoid further costly mistakes and unnecessary technical training expenditure.
   
2. A  factory attempted to implement a highly sophisticated Japanese manufacturing system, which required a mature responsibility and transparency level. Employees were typically at an earlier level of maturity, which meant they avoided admitting mistakes and were quick to cast blame. As a result, the organisation faced errors and inefficiencies.

   We supported the factory in introducing a new level of sense-making and personal responsibility, enabling it to implement the manufacturing programme more effectively.

3. A client business wanted to foster a culture of ownership and proactive problem-solving through a maturity development programme. However, their legacy culture was infused with cynicism, apathy and poor performance. Our maturational intervention enabled the system to function as intended, and the organisation could finally experience real, positive transformation.
   
4. A government agency wanted to move towards a more holistic, citizen-centric approach to service delivery. However, their departments were entrenched in their silos and the culture normalised toeing the line and minimising personal initiative to avoid risk.

   As a result of our intervention, the programme developed agency and collaboration. The process resulted in personal maturation, real cost-savings, innovation, and long-term projects.

The Role of the Enneagram in Maturity Development 

The Enneagram plays a powerful role in leadership maturity by helping individuals build self-awareness and awareness of multiple perspectives. It allows leaders to move beyond their own viewpoint (first-person thinking) and understand the perspectives of others (second-person thinking). It also helps them see the bigger picture of how people interact as part of a system (third-person thinking).

 

In addition to broadening perspectives, the Enneagram supports emotional intelligence, which directly connects to strategic thinking. When leaders learn to manage their emotions, they also enhance their ability to think strategically. 

 

As Dr. Kukard points out, managing emotions helps leaders take a step back and view themselves more objectively. This skill is crucial when dealing with complex and abstract issues that can’t be easily measured or visualised. 

 

“When you learn through the Enneagram, you learn about different views. And the moment you get people to be more okay with difference, all sorts of things become possible, such as diversity and inclusion, integrating a variety of stakeholders’ views for innovation, managing tradeoffs in decision-making, sustainability, and collaboration versus competition.” – Dr. Julia Kukard.  

 

Don’t wait for your leadership team to fall behind. Contact us today to fast-track results through maturity development or to become accredited in our Enneagram and maturity assessment tools for individuals and teams.

Follow Aephoria on LinkedIn for more insights and news. 

About Dr. Julia Kukard

With 30+ years in learning and development, Dr. Julia Kukard has worked globally with multinationals, governments, and NGOs. Her expertise spans coaching, psycho-education, and psychotherapy, helping individuals and groups thrive.

Julia holds degrees in Art History and Psychology, an MBA from UCT, and a Doctorate in Existential Psychotherapy from Middlesex University, UK. She has co-taught leadership on the UCT GSB MBA and co-authored a book on steward leadership. She is publishing her first solo book on Stuckness in December 2024.

Connect with Julia. 

About Lucille Greeff

Lucille Greeff is a Chartered Organisation Development (OD) practitioner, facilitator, coach, team development specialist, and HPCSA-registered psychometrist. She has a degree in Political Science, a BA Honours in Psychology, and an MA in Development Studies, all from the University of Johannesburg.

Lucille’s work focuses on personal, team, and organisational change and transformation, emphasising health and effectiveness, issue-centricity, and deep transformation. She is also a vision quest facilitator and uses wilderness-based leadership development and deep ecology work in her practice.

Connect with Lucille. 

References

1. Berger, J. G., & Atkins, P. (2009). The development of leaders: Beyond conventional leadership models. Harvard Business Review, 87(3), 75-83.
   
2. Brownlow, A. E. (2022). Measuring Adult Development and Exploring its Relationship to Leadership: Parallel Journeys through the Lens of Constructive-Developmental Theory.
   
3. Brown, B. C. (2012). Essentials of Applying Complexity Thinking for Sustainability Leadership. In Integral Sustainability Center, Resource Tool No (Vol. 12).
   
4. Cayer, M., & Baron, L. (2006a). The effect of mindfulness development on leadership: A longitudinal study. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 12(4), 50-61.
   
5. Fisher, D., & Torbert, W. R. (1991). Transformational leadership and stages of development. Leadership Quarterly, 2(2), 70-81.
   
6. Inner Development Goals, (2021). Inner Development Goals: Background, method and IDG framework. Retrieved from:   https://consciousbusinesseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/211125_IDG_ReportShort-FINAL.pdf
   
7. Legault, L. (2010). The relationship between leadership development and ethical leadership: A longitudinal study. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(2), 125-135.