The Top Five Excuses for Not Developing Talent
Companies are in a crisis of their own making right now.
At a recent produce industry event, I had a troubling conversation with a CEO. “All of our senior leaders are planning to retire in the next 3-5 years,” he told me. “But I’m worried about what will happen when they leave. We have some solid younger performers, but we haven’t done a great job of preparing them for leadership.”
I wish this was just one isolated case.
But it’s not.
Across industries, companies emphasize the importance of developing talent. But they often neglect the very people who could be their strongest leaders!
Why do companies make such an obvious oversight?
The Excuses: Why Companies Don’t Prioritize Leadership Development
There are many reasons why companies don’t train leaders internally. But most of these reasons are built on faulty logic. It’s time we call them out for what they are: excuses!
➡️ Excuse #1: “We’re doing fine as we are.” Development is seen as a “nice to have,” not an urgent need—until there’s a leadership gap or crisis. But this short-term thinking leads to a lack of training that results in gaps or crises developing in the first place!
➡️ Excuse #2: “Why spend money to develop them if they might leave?” This excuse is one of the most frustrating, because it shows that the company would rather hold people back than take a small risk. This mindset backfires on the company, because high-performers tend to leave because they can’t advance or get the development support they need.
➡️ Excuse #3: “They’ll figure it out as they go along.” While true to some extent, this is a plain lazy approach to developing leadership. Leaving every new leader to reinvent the wheel is highly inefficient, and many leaders will never grow as fast as they could if they had support.
➡️ Excuse #4: “We don’t have a system for training leadership.” Then create one! Even if a company has zero internal structure for training leaders, that’s not a valid excuse, because there are many external programs and communities for supporting new leaders. For example, check out Thriving Leaders Circle, where a new small-group cohort kicks off in a couple of weeks.
➡️ Excuse #5: “This is the way we’ve always done it.” This is a very dangerous mindset for senior leaders to have. When leaders are completely entrenched in their ways, they are often unable to change, progress, or accept new ideas.
Whether you are an emerging leader or senior leader, you’ve probably heard a variation of one of these excuses before. Learn to recognize these excuses for what they are, so you can think about how to push back or do something different.
Advocating for Change: How Can Emerging Leaders Get Support?
In an ideal world, companies would support the growth of their own employees. But since we still have a long way to go, emerging leaders need to know how to advocate for themselves.
In response to the 5 excuses above, these are some talking points you can use to start building your case for leadership development.
- “Investing in leadership development now prevents costly issues later—like inconsistent management, burnout, or poor team performance.”
- “Without guidance and training, I might make mistakes that could be avoided.”
- “I can lead my team better if I learn the right skills and mindsets early on.”
- “Other companies are investing in leadership pipelines—and attracting talent who want to grow. We risk falling behind.”
- “The right leadership training would help me coach my team instead of just managing tasks.”
- “A focused program like [X] would help me fill the gaps in my leadership skills.”
- “If we want to grow as a company, we need to grow our people first.”
- “Leadership development would help me and my team produce better results.”
You may notice, most of these talking points are designed to prove two things:
- The value in leadership development.
- The value in specifically investing in you.
Your goal is to get your senior leaders to buy-in to these two points. So take your time building a compelling argument. Make it clear how the company will benefit in the long run!
Putting It Into Practice
➡️ If you are a senior leader: Ask yourself, are you doing enough to support your juniors? Are you nurturing the young talent within your company? Does your top talent have room to grow? Are your emerging leaders thriving, or are they actually overwhelmed and floundering? Keep in mind that many new leaders are afraid to ask for support because they don’t know how or they don’t want to raise any red flags about their abilities.
➡️ If you are an emerging leader: Create a plan to advocate for your own leadership development. Don’t be afraid to speak up! You shouldn’t have to go into your new role blind, figuring out everything as you go, while under immense pressure. Talk to your senior leaders to secure the support or training you need in order to grow your skill set and confidence.
If you have been looking into Thriving Leaders Circle, you still have time to join the next group cohort before we kick off in early May. Click here to book a call with me, and see if TLC is the right leadership coaching program for you.