It’s time for an honest reckoning.
For too long, organisations have perpetuated a damaging myth in the professional world: that leadership is a natural progression from excelling in one’s current role. This misconception, ingrained in corporate cultures across industries, does more harm than good.
Leadership isn’t just a promotion—it’s a career transformation.
The moment someone steps into a leadership role, they aren’t simply moving up the ladder. They’re stepping into a new profession, requiring a radical shift in mindset, skillset, and responsibility.
The Seduction of Leadership Roles
It’s easy to see why leadership roles are so alluring. They come with higher pay, greater authority, and the prestige of ascending the corporate hierarchy. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the very qualities that made someone excel in their previous role may not translate to success as a leader.
Leadership isn’t a reward for doing more of the same; it’s a challenge to do something entirely different. And too often, that reality isn’t made clear until it’s too late.
What Leadership Really Demands
Imagine telling a top-performing software developer that their new job is no longer to write great code but to inspire, guide, and align a team of people to do so instead.
Success is no longer defined by personal output but by the collective achievement of their team. It requires not just technical expertise but emotional intelligence, strategic vision, and the ability to foster trust and collaboration.
Leadership isn’t about being the best at what you do—it’s about enabling others to be their best. It’s about setting direction, resolving conflicts, and creating an environment where teams can thrive. And yet, many aspiring leaders step into these roles with no roadmap for what’s ahead.
The Leadership Development Gap
Here lies the problem: when organisations promote individuals into leadership positions, they often fail to prepare them for the profound transformation the role demands.
Leadership isn’t an intuitive skill. It requires training, mentorship, and continuous development. Yet too many organisations treat leadership as an innate talent or something that can be picked up on the job. This trial-and-error approach leaves leaders overwhelmed and underprepared, leading to frustration, burnout, and inefficiency.
The cost of this gap in preparation is immense—not just for the individual but for the teams and businesses they lead.
A Shift in Perspective
As Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric, once said: “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
Leadership is not about incremental growth within a skillset; it’s about stepping into a space where vision, strategy, and human connection define success.
It’s a profound leap—not just a step.
Rethinking How We Develop Leaders
If we want to build leaders who succeed, we need to stop romanticising leadership as a reward for past performance and start preparing it as the distinct career change it truly is.
This shift requires us to rethink how we mentor and develop future leaders:
Are we preparing them for the realities of leadership, or simply setting them up for failure?
Are we equipping them with tools to lead, or leaving them to figure it out through trial and error?
Organisations must see leadership development as an investment, not an expense. Comprehensive training, coaching, and mentorship programs are essential. So too is fostering a culture that values growth, adaptability, and continuous learning. Leadership isn’t static—it evolves with every challenge and opportunity.
Put people first, and results will follow
Ultimately, this is about more than business results. It’s about people.
People drive innovation, creativity, and growth. People are the point. And when we invest in our leaders, we’re investing in the well-being and potential of the teams they guide.
So let’s stop lying to our leaders. Let’s tell them the truth: leadership isn’t just a reward; it’s a new responsibility. It’s not just the next step in a career; it’s a bold new direction. And it’s a journey worth preparing for.
