Why do so many new leaders fail?

A leader is supposed to inspire you and clear barriers ahead, yet so many cause more problems than they solve. Most of the time the people behind the leadership positions are great people – they just have no clue how to lead.

I’ve seen many companies promote individuals to leadership positions solely based on a highly visible project they’ve accomplished. The belief is that because the individual has accomplished great work that somehow this will translate directly to their ability to lead a team. I can tell you from experience, this is not the case. And following this pattern can be detrimental to your business.

Some people are born with the natural ability to connect to others, while some need a lot more guidance and training. And some people are just better off as individual contributors. By not addressing the quality of our leaders. we create more problems and eventually lose good people all because we threw someone into a leadership position without proper training and proper accountability.

So before you promote your next leader, consider whether she or he a) has the ability to lead a team, b) has the ability but needs a lot of training, or c) deserves a promotion but not a leadership role. Once you’ve determined this, make sure you’ve built a level of accountability into their goals to ensure they are doing the only job that matters to a leader – building up their people.