Erika Hebert
Every executive team I meet says the same thing: 'We just need more strong leaders.' Then we open the succession plan and the truth surfaces. It isn't a talent shortage. It's a readiness gap that no one wanted to name out loud.
Talent is not the same as readiness
High performers are visible. Ready leaders are built. Confusing the two is how organizations end up promoting their best individual contributor into a role that quietly breaks them and the team they inherit.
What the gap actually looks like
It looks like a director who avoids hard conversations. A manager who solves every problem themselves because delegation feels risky. A VP who can execute but cannot set a vision. None of these are character flaws. They are unbuilt muscles.
How to close it
Stop treating leadership development as a workshop line item. Start treating it as an operating system: assessment, coaching, real application in the work, and feedback loops that outlast a single quarter. That is what actually moves behavior.
