Observing how leaders think and relate – CADRA IO3 Report

Findings from the first cohort of Leadership Profiles in the CADRA Project – CADRA IO3 report

In this report (“Intellectual Output 3”) we present our main findings from the first cohort of around 40 leadership profiles (“developmental assessments”1) we conducted in 2021 in the Erasmus+ co-funded CADRA project. The profiles qualitatively look at the cognitive (dialectical thinking) and social-emotional (relating to self, other and world) capabilities of the around 40 people we interviewed. The results give an idea of the level of complexity and the scope of responsibility in which today’s leaders seem to be capable of acting.

The interviews and resulting leadership profiles, which we conducted twice per person over the course of 3 years to observe changes, show that a large number of leaders have difficulties to show the required thinking and relating capabilities that we could consider needed to face today’s local and global challenges. While looking at the results, we also found that one can probably assume that the capacity to think dialectically, and the capacity to relate to self, other and world are influencing each other, making it either easier or harder to develop one’s way of meaning making in a way that meets the challenges we are facing.