The Leadership Gap Is Costing You

The Leadership Gap brings substantial costs and keeps you from functioning as well as you could,

What Is a Leadership Gap?

Most individuals and organizations suffer from a silent but deadly leadership gap that is costing them plenty. It's a common phenomenon that keeps you and your organization from functioning as well as it could. It causes problems that lead to lost revenue, opportunities, customers, and market share, and it increases costs, problems, stress, and employee turnover.

The individual and organizational symptoms and their true costs are only recognized by a trained eye. Leaders often write them off as normal and inevitable. They let things continue as they are. But the cost of these issues is substantial and the dysfunction is totally preventable. It's just a matter of time before the debt catches up with them, their options become more limited, the cure becomes more expensive, and their survival rate plummets.

What Are the Symptoms?

There are many symptoms of a leadership gap. For some individual leaders it negatively affects their ability to get a raise and promotion. Their bonuses are smaller and their reviews are lower. They have more personnel and delivery problems. They tend to have higher levels of stress and frustration, and they aren't excited to come to work. Other leaders seem to coast through the leadership gap with ease, ignore the issues, keep things the same, and are somehow rewarded for it by their supervisor.

At an organizational level, the leadership gap can cause a broad range of issues.

1. Revenue is less than it could be, and costs are higher, resulting in lower profit.

2. The strategic direction of the company doesn't align with the evolving marketplace.

3. Competitors are challenging you and are taking away market share.

4. Customers complain, purchase less, and eventually leave.

5. Employees express frustration, lower their productivity, and leave for a better job.

6. Projects are delivered late and over budget, with quality issues, and missing functionality the customers need.

7. Communication breaks down and people don’t get along.

8. Employees form tribes for mutual benefit and protection that often enrich their members at the expense of the organization.

9. The number of issues reported to HR is on the rise and some new hires leave soon after coming on board.

10. The mission, vision, and values posted on the walls don’t reflect what the company culture has become.

11. People focus on maintaining harmony instead of facing reality. No one wants to rock the boat or challenge the leaders.

12. Change is symbolic and is designed to make the leader look good, but it doesn't help close the leadership gap, often widening it instead.

13. Leaders don't listen, quickly dismiss any notion that problems exist, and penalize anyone for bringing anything up.

These individual and organizational symptoms often go undetected or are written off as normal and inevitable, with no serious consequences and no available cure. These leaders are quick to point out that this is how it has always been done. They have all the answers, the metrics they're tracking are positive, and there's nothing to worry about. Staying the course is the best thing to do.

I see this leadership gap to varying degrees everywhere I go. Individuals appear to be at the height of the power. They think they're invincible and the rules don't apply to them, but their days are numbered. Some organizations are on their last breath while others are still in business in spite of themselves. Some even appear to be thriving. But the cost of the issues keeps rising and the risk of failure keeps growing. They've become an overconfident gazelle and haven't noticed the lions lurking in the grass.

Who's at Fault?

It’s easy to place blame: it's always the leader's fault. It definitely starts at the top, but it can exist at all levels of an organization. You don't have to be a manager or leader; you can just be an individual contributor. In fact, every employee can have a leadership gap, and every employee is responsible for closing theirs. Managers are also responsible for closing the leadership gap of everyone on their team.

There's a leadership gap between what people need to do and what they actually get done. There's a gap between their perception of reality and the truth. There's also a skills gap, a knowledge gap, and at the end of the day, there's an ownership gap. More importantly, there's a mental gap. Since their survival needs are being provided for in terms of salary, bonus, stock options, and other perks, they can turn off that part of their brain. It's like they've become a chihuahua in a purse instead of the wild, alpha wolf they need to be.

The leadership gap happens to leaders on the entire experience spectrum from new managers all the way to seasoned professionals. Leaders are doing their best but are only delivering a small fraction of their full potential. They want to do better but are unknowingly holding themselves back. They think they're doing a good job, but they need to do much better.

The most impactful leaders are those at the top. Unfortunately, they sometimes get so focused on painting an unrealistically optimistic picture that they end of drinking their own Kool-Aid. They're certain they see success on the horizon while failure is slowly creeping in. It can happen to the best leaders. Just ask the former CEOs of Blockbuster, Circuit City, K-Mart, Kodak, Sears, and Toys "R" Us.

Common Solutions

So, what can be done? Training is often the first step. It can help but the information isn't retained nor does it get converted into new skills. You may have made a small change initially, but after 30 days that has often stopped, and things are back to normal. Certifications and degrees are another option, but they have the same challenges as training but at a higher cost and time commitment. They also take much longer to complete. You rarely get immediate results that make a significant difference.

All of these solutions have an additional problem in that they are generalized. They don't address your most pressing problem and solve it in a way that meets your specific situation in the best possible way. The solution providers are also focused on selling classes instead of getting results for you. They measure success by the number of students they enroll instead of the results their students achieve outside the classroom.

In summary, these common solutions cost a lot of money, take a lot of time, take longer to realize any significant improvements, don't help you solve your specific issues in the best possible way, and don't produce lasting results.

Coaching Is the Best Cure

Coaching is the quickest and most effective cure I’ve found to bridge this leadership gap as long as it is customized, holistic, and addresses the root cause of the issue. Almost every high-performing athlete has at least one coach to help them be their best. It’s easy for them to measure success: they either win or they don't. It’s much more difficult to determine if you’re winning as an organizational leader. Often times you think you're winning when you're actually losing. A good coach can quickly tell you how you're doing.

I’ve seen coaching work for all kinds of leaders, regardless of industry, their experience level, and whether they work for a corporation, a nonprofit, or in local, state, or federal government. Coaching converts knowledge into useful skills over time. Coaches can help you see things you can’t, master skills completely, and achieve your goals sooner than you can on your own. The best coaches take things to a much higher level: they help you transform and achieve things you didn't think were possible for you. When organizations provide coaches for several of their key leaders at once, they achieve significant results in a much shorter amount of time.

Top 10 Things to Look for in a Coach

It’s important that you find a coach who's a good fit for your specific needs. Here are the top ten things to look for when hiring a coach.

1. They need to have real experience working in leadership positions so they can provide real solutions instead of unproven theories.

2. They need to listen to you, understand you, understand your organization, and see beyond what you’re saying.

3. They must get feedback from your supervisor, your peers, your direct reports, and other key stakeholders to hear firsthand what you do well and how you can do better.

4. They need to take a holistic approach that combines proven strategies from leadership, management, project management, customer service, sales, public speaking, career, relationship, life, and communication coaching to help you master valuable skills and overcome obstacles that keep you from delivering your highest potential.

5. They need to have extensive expertise in a wide variety of topics from these nine categories: communication, customers, leadership, management, people, projects, self, strategy, and teams.

6. They need to customize their coaching to address the root cause of the problem and provide solutions that are tailored to meet your specific needs.

7. They need to use just-in-time-coaching to solve your most pressing issue in the moment.

8. They need to provide you with new paradigms and help you see things from different perspectives.

9. They need to tell you the truth and hold you accountable.

10. They need to meet with you over an extended period of time to ensure your knowledge is turned into action and you master the skills completely.

Summary

Average leaders ignore the problems and keep things as they've always been. Good leaders solve problems. Great leaders prevent them from happening in the first place. And the best leaders have a coach who helps them close the costly leadership gap, unleash the power of their teams, and elevate their organization to its highest potential.

The rewards from closing the leadership gap are substantial for both the leader and the organization. The return on investment is significant in terms of increased income, market share, opportunities, productivity, customer retention, and employee engagement. The reduction in costs, conflicts, problems, and stress creates possibilities.

Get a coach today so you can start down the path to closing your leadership gap. Determine its costs and how it's negatively affecting you. Make the most important changes first. You'll be glad you did.

---

Note: I’ve seen leaders achieve amazing results with our unique, holistic, custom coaching program called Leadership Coaching for Managers. It meets all of the top ten requirements above, and it has been proven effective for both new managers and experienced managers in a variety of industries. Selected success stories can be found on our website blog. You can schedule a free, no-obligation, discovery call to better determine if this program is a good fit for your needs.