The 4 most common leadership effectiveness gaps 

You have the right people, and the strategy is solid, but the team aren’t delivering the impact you need Maybe you have a leadership effectiveness gap which reduced the impact of your strategy.   A leadership effectiveness gap can manifest in many ways. Left unchecked the impact on your company’s bottom line can be critical, team morale damaged and market opportunities missed.  

Here are my tips on how to identify and approach them.    

1: Transitioning to a new role too quickly    

I often observe this problem – leaders transition into a more prominent role when they aren’t adequately prepared for it. It might be an internal promotion that seems excellent on paper, but once in the new role for several months, the cracks start to show, and performance isn’t at the level required.  

In haste to move forward with a talent strategy plan, the necessary due diligence is skipped. Leaders who thrive through significant career transitions are groomed to be ready. This starts by receiving evidence of where you are now and how your leadership needs to evolve – ‘what got you here isn’t going to get you there.’  

A high-level executive assessment can help to identify capability gaps and create a data-led approach to supporting and developing the leader into that new role or re-assigning them to a more suitable position where their strengths are optimised.       

2: Lack of team alignment & people operating in silos   

Leadership teams carry a lot of responsibility. They each have a vertical to lead forward and an enterprise to consider. Decision-making as a leadership team is complex and, therefore, requires leadership effectiveness and maturity to strive forward.  

This complexity is exasperated when leading within a dynamic market, growth ambitions and societal consequences. In this heightened space, leaders often shift to silo thinking, what’s in their control and expertise, leaving the broader picture needing to be rescued.  

To thrive, teams need to rewire what success looks like, align on collective success measures and create self-management for win-win outcomes. The worrying alternative is when we observe a lack of alignment, execution in silos with a lack of communication, breeding misunderstandings and mistakes.   

3: A lack of agility and self-awareness   

Sometimes senior leaders fall back on old ways of doing things, especially under pressure. Lacking the ability to lead from a fresh, agile perspective keeps them and their organisation from achieving their full potential. Developing an agile mindset teams needs investment in one-to-one coaching to challenge perspectives and help leaders get out of their own way. Leaders need to create new thinking patterns, resulting in increased impact and improved results.     

4: Lack of proper succession planning   

Are you ready? Do you have a plan? How robust is your plan?

When a senior leader leaves and the company is ill-prepared to fill that gap, a lack of succession planning places enormous pressure on organisation results and immediately shines a light on the leadership gaps within.  

Investment in a long-term plan for talent development and ongoing analysis is critical to ensure there are no outsized gaps from one person’s absence.    

Overall, ensuring your company’s ongoing success means a robust leadership effectiveness strategy is critical to addressing potential leadership gaps.   

For more help and advice on creating your leadership effectiveness talent strategy, contact me at NewlandRock to organise a think-tank session.