Why Leadership Development Isn't Enough (The 3 Phases You're Missing)
I've been doing leadership development for seven years.
And here's what I've realized: We're only scratching the surface.
Most organizations invest in leadership training. They send their managers to workshops. Maybe they even bring in someone to run a development program.
And it helps. Leaders grow. Things improve.
But then they hit a ceiling. The growth plateaus. And they wonder: Why aren't we seeing the transformation we expected?
Here's why: Leadership development is just Phase 1.
If you stop there, you're building a foundation and then walking away before the house is built.
There are actually three distinct phases of leadership growth. And the magic doesn't happen until you get all three correct.
Phase 1: Leadership Development (Building the Foundation)
This is where most organizations start and stop.
Leadership development is about helping someone move from manager to leader. From individual contributor to the person leading other contributors.
But here's what we get wrong: We focus on what leaders should do instead of who they need to become.
The real work isn't teaching tactics. It's helping someone embrace a new identity.
"I am a leader."
Sounds simple, right?
But I've worked with hundreds of leaders over the years, and here's what I've found: We drastically overestimate how many people actually see themselves as leaders.
What happens instead?
Someone gets promoted because they're great at their job. They're excited. They want to prove themselves.
But no one teaches them what being a leader actually means.
So, they fall back into old habits. They manage tasks instead of leading people. They lack confidence, so they avoid difficult conversations. They replicate whatever their previous boss did, either copying it exactly or doing the complete opposite.
Leadership isn't taught. It's inherited.
You learn by watching. And if what you watched wasn't great, you're now leading from a broken blueprint.
That's why Phase 1 matters. You need to teach people what leadership actually looks like. Help them embrace that identity. Give them the foundation to build on.
But if you stop here, nothing will transform.
Phase 2: Leadership Navigation (Living It Out)
This is the phase most organizations completely miss.
You've helped your leaders embrace their identity. Great. Now they have to actually live it out.
And that's where things get messy.
Real leadership challenges don't show up in training modules. They show up when:
Your best employee threatens to quit
Two departments are at war, and you're caught in the middle
You must deliver feedback that will devastate someone
A decision you made backfired and now you're cleaning up the mess
This is where leaders need the most support. And it's exactly when we leave them alone.
We assume that because they went through training, they've got it figured out.
They don't.
Leadership navigation is about building off that foundation. Working through challenges as they arise. Growing through the hard moments instead of just surviving them.
It's not about making leaders smarter. It's about making them more effective.
When your leaders become more effective, your employees become more effective. And when both rise together, you start producing incredible things.
But most organizations don't provide navigation support. They train once and hope for the best.
That's why ongoing strategic advising and leadership support matters. Because leaders need someone in their corner as they navigate the real, messy work of leading people.
But even that's not enough for transformation.
Phase 3: Leadership Transformation (Growing Together)
Phase 3 is where the real power lives.
This isn't about individual leaders growing anymore. This is about your entire leadership team transforming together.
It's not about content. It's about collective behavior change aligned to your strategic priorities.
Here's what I mean:
Let's say your strategic priority this year is to lower turnover. Or increase employee engagement. Or build a healthier culture.
All of those priorities require specific leadership behaviors.
Lower turnover? Your leaders need to delegate better, offer more meaningful feedback, and have retention conversations before people start looking elsewhere.
Increase engagement? Your leaders need to connect work to purpose, recognize contributions, and create space for innovation.
Build healthier culture? Your leaders need to model vulnerability, address conflict directly, and hold each other accountable.
Leadership transformation is about identifying:
How are we acting today?
What needs to change?
And then systematically working with your entire leadership team through that process of change.
It's saying: We're going to transform how we lead this organization. Together.
It creates strategic urgency. It gets everyone focused. It makes behavior change non-negotiable.
And that's when your organization actually improves in significant ways.
Why You Need All Three
Most organizations have Phase 1 figured out. You know how to teach the foundations of leadership.
But without Phase 2, those foundations crack under real-world pressure.
And without Phase 3, individual growth never becomes organizational impact.
Your organization needs all three:
Development so leaders embrace their identity
Navigation so they live it out effectively through challenges
Transformation so they collectively shift in ways that accomplish your strategic priorities
Get all three right, you become a powerhouse.
You make a bigger difference in the world. You accomplish your goals in significant ways.
But it requires you to stop thinking about leadership development as an event and start thinking about it as a system.
Phase 1 gets them started. Phase 2 keeps them growing. Phase 3 aligns that growth to what your organization actually needs.
That's when training becomes transformation.
Your Phase Assessment
Take 5 minutes and ask yourself:
Which phase are we missing?
Do our leaders embrace their identity, or are they just going through the motions? (Phase 1)
Are they navigating challenges effectively, or struggling alone? (Phase 2)
Are they growing together toward strategic priorities, or growing in random directions? (Phase 3)
If you're only doing Phase 1, you're leaving the biggest opportunities on the table.
You've built the foundation. Now it's time to build the house.
Ready to Move Beyond Phase 1?
Not sure which phase your organization is missing? Here's a diagnostic question: When was the last time you checked in on how your leaders are actually doing with the challenges they're facing right now? If you can't remember, you're probably missing Phase 2. Contact me to discuss what navigation or transformation support could look like for your team.