We are in a leadership crisis.

I say this often (and I truly believe it). But why? How did we get here?

I think at the root of it, society holds a belief that anyone can lead (or manage) and that there aren’t specific skills needed to do either of these successfully.

Let’s look at businesses. How many times, do we look at an individual contributor who is knocking it out of the park and say,

What’s missing from this exchange? Have we made sure they actually want to lead and manage people? Or do we automatically believe that the next career step is to move into people management? Do they have a career path that includes training and development for the skills needed to be successful in this new role? Are they ready?

In her book, Radical Candor, Kim Scott discusses Rock Stars and Superstars (see this blog post). We have a tendency to value the Superstars (with a steep growth trajectory) over Rock Stars (with a gradual growth trajectory). We sometimes see the Rock Stars as stagnant and therefore, we often set people up to feel that they need that steep trajectory to be valued and rewarded.

Additionally, we don’t teach leadership and management skills. Even most leadership classes in school focus more on projects and less on skills such as conflict management, having difficult conversations, expectation setting, coaching or team-building.

We also hold misconceptions about team-building. If I were to ask you what the first thing you think of if I say, “We are going to do team-building,” what would it be? For many people, it’s an audible groan and grumbling about falling off tables. We often have pre-conceived notions that team building involving ropes courses, trust falls or some kind of other activity like an escape room, bowling or karaoke.

While activities are a great way to spend time with colleagues, and share some laughs which in turn does build a stronger team, but the work needs to continue on a regular basis for it to be really effective. Trust is the basis of building teams, and trust is built through small, meaningful exchanges (see this blog post on building strong teams or this one on trust).

Additionally, since we often lack the leadership skills, we don’t know how to support new leaders. Often even effective leaders don’t know how to teach what they do; they just do it, and it works.

And then we end up in a continuous cycle. We don’t recognize leadership and management as skills-based, so we promote people without the appropriate skills, who then can not support the people on their teams effectively and we keep going. Sometimes, organizations are too small to offer leadership training programs.

It’s obvious to think about how this cycle affects team members, but we often forget about the leaders we’ve set up to fail. Many know they aren’t successful which affects their engagement and yet another cycle continues.

We’re here, but what can we do? The good news is small things can help and make a difference.

• Have career pathing discussions with employees. For those who wish to lead people, support them in developing their skills and do not promote them until they are ready

• Learn: read blogs or books, listen to podcasts, attend seminars, watch TED Talks, subscribe to newsletters (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) or follow great leaders on social media (need help about where to start? Check out my RESOURCES page). If it is in your budget, attend conferences or training.

• Spend time getting to know other team members. Ask them questions and pay attention to their responses. Start a meeting with a quick, fun question. Play three truths and a lie. Have team members fill in a fun questionnaire and read one per week and have people guess who it is.

• Invest in DISC profiles and a training session for the team to better understand how each person communicates and their natural behaviour tendencies.

• Complete a Five Behaviours Team Assessment and find out your starting point and get specific recommendations for how to become a stronger team (based on Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team).

• Find a leadership coach/mentor.

• Reach out to me and let’s talk about how I might be able to help.

As with all things, you don’t have to jump into the deep end. Start by doing something small and when that’s comfortable, add something else (see my book review on James Clear’s Atomic Habits for more advice on consistency over intensity).

What’s your next step?