In most organisations, you can already name the person. They are excellent at the job: reliable, trusted, capable and respected by the team. When a leadership role opens up, they look like the obvious choice.
Often they are the right choice. But being good at the job does not automatically mean someone is ready to lead people, and the gap usually only shows once they are in the role. Research from CMI with YouGov found that 82% of people entering management roles had no formal management or leadership training.
Who Is Likely to Need Support
The people who benefit most from early leadership development tend to fall into a few familiar groups:
- a high performer preparing to step up
- a newly promoted team leader
- a supervisor still finding their feet
- someone managing former peers
- someone technically strong but new to leading others
- someone already being relied on more heavily than their job title suggests
These are often the people businesses depend on most. They know the work, understand the team and care about doing a good job. But the shift into leadership asks something different of them.
The Early Challenges New Leaders Face
Whatever the sector, new leaders tend to meet the same early challenges:
- moving from doing the work to leading the work
- managing former peers
- delegating without becoming the bottleneck
- setting clear expectations
- handling difficult performance conversations
- recognising and managing conflict
- building confidence as a leader
- creating a stronger, more accountable team
None of these are solved by technical skill alone. Our Performance Management and Managing Conflict courses exist precisely because these are the conversations new managers find hardest.
Why Timing Matters
Waiting until someone is visibly struggling often makes development harder. By then, habits may have formed, confidence may have dropped and avoided conversations may already have become bigger issues.
Support works best around the moment of promotion: shortly before, or in the first months after. That is when someone is most open to learning a new way of working, and before the role has had a chance to shape them in ways that are hard to undo.
From the Training Room
We regularly meet people who were promoted because they were the best at the job, and who are now quietly working twice as hard: doing their old role during the day and the leadership part around the edges. They are not failing. They simply have not yet been given the tools to lead differently. When they are, the change is often quick, because the commitment and credibility were already there.
A Quick Win
Take a moment to ask: who in our organisation has recently stepped up, is likely to step up soon, or is already being relied on as a leader without the title? Then ask what support they have had for the people side of the role. If the honest answer is "not much", that is the gap worth closing.
Final Thought
The best future leaders are usually already visible inside the business. The opportunity is to prepare them before the role stretches them. New & Aspiring Leaders is built for people in the 12 months either side of stepping up, combining live online workshops with one-to-one coaching between sessions. You can also browse all courses.
