July 18, 2024 · Michael Bertrand
Susanne Cook-Greuter's Leadership Maturity Framework (LMF), building on Jane Loevinger's ego development theory, offers a comprehensive roadmap of adult developmental stages. Within any leadership team, it is common to find people operating from different stages — and one of the most frequently occurring sources of friction is the tension between leaders at the Expert and Achiever stages.
Understanding these tensions is not about judging one stage as superior to another. It is about creating the conditions for genuine collaboration between people who genuinely see the world differently.
Leaders at the Expert stage value precision and technical mastery above almost everything else. They take great pride in their expertise, pursue perfection, and hold high standards — both for themselves and others. They prefer established methods, focus heavily on details, and can be resistant to approaches that seem to abandon what has been proven to work.
Expert-stage leaders often struggle with criticism of their approach, because their expertise is deeply tied to their identity. To challenge their method is to challenge them.
Achiever-stage leaders embrace complexity and focus on outcomes. They innovate, initiate change, and are willing to design entirely new methods when existing ones fall short. They remain open to feedback when it supports goal achievement, and they excel at strategic prioritisation and delegation. Where Expert-stage leaders focus on the detail, Achievers tend to maintain the broader perspective.
Expert-stage leaders seek the single correct solution via proven methods. Achiever-stage leaders view problems as opportunities for innovation. This creates real friction when the two must collaborate on a solution — one wants to do it right, the other wants to do something new.
Expert-stage leaders often resist criticism of their expertise. Achiever-stage leaders welcome constructive input when it supports goal achievement. In a team context, this asymmetry can make feedback conversations feel threatening to one party and frustratingly constrained to the other.
Experts concentrate on task specifics; Achievers maintain broader perspectives. When both are present in a leadership team, meetings can feel like two conversations happening simultaneously — one about how, one about why.
Experts favour established techniques and proven processes. Achievers challenge the status quo. Neither orientation is wrong — but when unmanaged, the tension between them can create paralysis or fragmentation rather than productive dialogue.
Expert-stage leaders can be competitive and critical — particularly toward those they perceive as cutting corners. Achiever-stage leaders tend to emphasise collaboration and outcome, which can read as superficiality to an Expert. Each may see the other as fundamentally missing the point.
The goal is not to eliminate these tensions — they reflect genuine developmental differences that each bring value. The opportunity lies in creating conditions where both orientations are understood, respected, and able to contribute their distinct strengths:
When Expert and Achiever-stage leaders understand each other's developmental logic, the friction between them becomes a creative force rather than a source of conflict.
The MAP assessment reveals your current developmental stage and your growing edge — and how to work with it.