3 reasons leadership development fails you

Reader,

Have you ever wondered why leadership development only gets you so far?

You reach a new level—and suddenly, what got you here won’t get you any farther.

There’s a reason why most leadership growth doesn’t scale or deliver the outcomes it promises.

The 3 ingredients for scalable leadership growth.

For your leadership to grow with you—as your responsibilities and complexity increase—it must equip you to:

• Develop yourself. You’re always going to encounter new challenges. You need a clear path to keep developing, without waiting for your boss or company to do it for you.
• Develop others. What you learn must be transferable. You need to teach others what you’ve learned in a clear, structured way.
• Diagnose and solve problems. Your growth should equip you to solve real team challenges and keep everyone on track.

How most leaders grow.

Virtually every leader I know has grown through some mix of:

• Books & Podcasts – for concepts, techniques, and new ways of thinking
• Trainings – for structured tools and methods
• Experience – learning by doing, on the job
• Modeling – watching other leaders and mimicking what works

These are all useful. But...

Here’s the problem.

When you're pulling from a dozen sources, it gets hard to:

• Piece everything together
• Know what applies when
• Make your learning practical and actionable

So when you're under pressure, your leadership development might fail you.

3 reasons leadership development fails you.

#1 You don't have a cohesive way to lead.

A tapestry of different leadership methods, strategies, techniques, philosophies, and tools can be useful—but when they don’t fit together:

• You tend to chase the latest insight and forget other things that worked.
• You struggle to choose between competing strategies.
• You send mixed messages to your team.
• You lose traction in your leadership.

#2 It doesn't adapt to who you are.

Too often, we contort ourselves to fit a model of leadership—rather than building a model that fits us.

Why this matters:

• People sense when your leadership isn’t authentic.
• It’s exhausting to lead in a way that isn’t you.
• Your confidence drops when you're not grounded in your own way of leading.

Any form of leadership that isn't you is sure to fail over time.

#3 You can't use it to develop others.

If your growth has been a patchwork—based on random moments and scattered tools—your leadership will reflect that.

Why that's a problem:

• You pass along disjointed approaches that don't help others.
• Your team doesn't progress in a meaningful or aligned way.
• You're unsure how to help others develop a style that fits them.

And if you’ve never experienced structured development, it’s very hard to turn around and provide it to others.

The power of a framework.

To overcome these challenges, you need a clear, cohesive leadership model that:

• Shows you what to focus on next
• Brings all your learning together into one picture
• Adjusts to the real situations you face
• Helps you develop others in a clear and structured way
• Equips you to solve team challenges of all kinds

Do you have a leadership model that does all of that?

If so, I’d love to hear about it—reply and tell me about it, or let’s find time to connect.

In the coming weeks, I’ll share the leadership model I’ve developed—and how it solves these challenges and more.

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it and would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Sara

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