A candid discussion about the Leadership Gap

The Critical Role of Employee Engagement

Let’s be honest—every company talks about how much they value their people. You know the line: “Our employees are our greatest asset.” But then, day after day, things don’t quite add up. Employees might seem checked out or just be doing the bare minimum. True engagement means people feel motivated, take ownership of their work, and literally act like the business is their own. They go that extra mile, help out their teammates, and push to make things happen.

We can all agree that:

• Engaged employees are motivated and take ownership of their work.

• They go the extra mile and support their teammates.

• They pursue business success as if the company were their own.

• There is a significant impact on the bottom line - more innovation, growth, motivation, lower retention, and certainly higher profit.

But how does this level of engagement happen? The answer lies in leadership. Without inspiring and effective leadership, even the most talented employees can become disengaged, resulting in missed opportunities for innovation, growth, and profitability. Furthermore, even the best strategy will not succeed when executed by a disengaged team.

You know the saying:

Employees don't leave companies, they leave managers.

When managers step up to really lead, not just to complete their own tasks, employees feel the difference. They’re more inspired, more creative, and more invested in the company’s success.

The Leadership Challenge: When Great Managers Fail to Lead

In many organizations, managers struggle to transition from being individual performers to true leaders. When an employee is promoted, they often cling to the mindset and metrics that made them successful in their previous role—delivering on personal tasks, meeting assignments, and tracking individual output.

Yet effective leadership is far more than completing tasks. It’s about nurturing and developing the potential of others. Unfortunately, when managers are promoted to lead leaders, they typically continue to focus on their own assignments. Moreover, they fail to measure and emphasize leadership performance within their teams, perpetuating a cycle where leadership development stagnates.

The Core Issue:

• Mindset Trap: Promoted managers often measure success by personal deliverables rather than leadership excellence.

• Lack of Accountability: Without measuring leadership effectiveness, managers have little incentive to coach their direct reports.

• Neglected Responsibility: The critical task of nurturing future leaders rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Unpacking the Root Causes

Why do so many managers remain stuck in a “doer” mindset rather than embracing their roles as mentors and leaders? There are several interrelated reasons:

1. Old Habits Die Hard:

   Most managers were promoted based on their individual achievements. Their early career success creates a template that continues to favor personal task completion over broader, team-centric responsibilities.

2. Insufficient Training and follow-up:

   Leadership development often comes as a one-off event—a training session or a workshop—without ongoing support. This sporadic approach fails to address the unique challenges each manager faces as they learn to coach and develop others.

3. Lack of Measurable Leadership Metrics:

   Traditional performance evaluations focus on individual accomplishments. With no system in place to measure critical leadership behaviors, managers rarely receive the feedback necessary to evolve from task-doers to visionary leaders.

4. Inadequate Incentives:

   Without tangible rewards tied to leadership development, managers are neither motivated nor accountable for growing their teams. The result is an environment where the responsibility of fostering powerful leadership cultures is consistently sidelined.

A New Paradigm: Training, Measuring, and Rewarding Leadership

To genuinely bridge the gap between what companies say about employee engagement and the day-to-day reality, the focus must shift toward developing great leaders who, in turn, create an empowered, engaged workforce. Here’s how this transformation can take place:

1. Train and Educate Through Personalized and Team Coaching

• Personalized Coaching:

  Every manager faces unique barriers and challenges when transitioning to leadership. One-on-one coaching sessions help them identify personal blind spots and overcome ingrained habits. This individualized approach ensures that managers learn to lead with a focus on developing others. It also tracks and addresses their progress and specific challenges as they practice their leadership skills.

• Team Coaching:

  Leadership isn’t just about the individual—it’s about creating a coherent leadership team. When managers learn together, they build shared values and strategies that drive a unified vision. This collaboration reinforces the idea that success is measured by the growth of the entire team, not just individual output.

2. Measure Leadership with 360-Degree Feedback

• Comprehensive Evaluation:

  To shift the focus from individual tasks to leadership potential, organizations must adopt 360-degree feedback systems. These systems gather input from employees, peers, and direct reports, as well as their self-evaluation, painting a complete picture of a manager’s leadership effectiveness.

• Continuous Assessment:

  Instead of relying on one-off evaluations, continuous measurement provides real-time insights. This ongoing feedback loop allows managers to adjust and improve their coaching strategies, ensuring that leadership remains a measurable and prioritized function.

3. Reward Leadership Excellence with Tangible Incentives

• Incentivize the Right Behavior:

  If companies truly value their employees as the greatest asset, then compensation must reflect the importance of leadership. Tying bonuses, incentives, and other rewards directly to leadership performance, rather than purely to individual tasks, elevates coaching to a core managerial responsibility.

• Culture Reinforcement:

  When managers see a direct correlation between their leadership efforts and financial rewards, they are more motivated to invest in their teams. This approach not only drives individual managers to improve but also fosters a culture where developing others becomes the norm.

Not just for the big guys

Small and mid-size businesses often tend to skip the leadership training and development, claiming that this is a practice for bigger enterprises. Their most significant objections are high cost and lack of time. Let me address those one by one:

Cost:

Those businesses usually have a single leadership team. While larger companies may have an in-house team that trains and coaches those leaders, smaller businesses can hire an external professional coach to help with this task. Training this team should not cost a fortune, and the return on investment greatly supersedes the initial investment.

Time:

The time investment in training should typically not exceed one hour a week for personal coaching and an additional hour for a leadership team group coaching. On top of that, the change in dynamic, engagement, and energy in the company will manifest into much higher productivity, much more than the time invested, and will last well past the duration of the training.

Summing it up

Empowering Leaders, Engaging Employees, and Driving Business Success

There’s a significant gap between the lofty claims many companies make about employee engagement and the on-the-ground reality. Engaged employees, who act with ownership, support one another, and are driven to go the extra mile, are the backbone of business success. Yet, this level of commitment begins with effective leadership.

When managers remain focused solely on their own tasks without embracing the full spectrum of their leadership responsibilities, the critical duty of nurturing future leaders is lost. By shifting the focus to continuous training, comprehensive measurement, and tangible rewards for leadership excellence, organizations can truly bridge this gap.

When every manager is equipped and motivated to transform their teams, the result is clear: a cascade of engaged, empowered employees who drive innovation, growth, and profitability from every level of the organization.

Call to Action:

If you’re ready to transform your leadership culture and build a truly engaged workforce, explore our leadership development program, True North Leadership. Invest in the training, measurement, and rewards that put leadership at the heart of your business success.