Leadership gaps can affect all organizations, regardless of their size, net worth, or legacy standing. In fact, a 2021 survey from consulting firm DDI affirms just how widespread leadership gaps are — and how many leaders are aware of those gaps.
According to the survey findings, fewer than half of the leaders that were polled felt they were adequately prepared to lead effectively. And most of their organizations weren’t providing any help: Just 28% said they were receiving assistance to improve their leadership skill sets.
These statistics reveal just how essential it is for you as an entrepreneur to identify, assess, and fill the critical leadership gaps within your startup. Without a clear understanding of what your leadership gaps are, you will have difficulty overcoming them through the use of strategic approaches and leading-edge resources.
To begin, let’s talk about what leadership gaps are and how they affect organizations.
What is a leadership gap in an organizational environment?
Picture a person standing on the bank of a river. Across the river is another shore line. A bridge connects the two banks.
The first bank represents the leader’s current capabilities. These are the skills and knowledge that are readily available and abundant. The second bank — the one across the water — represents all the skills and knowledge that the leader lacks. The water is the gap between those points. The bridge, of course, is the connector that leads the leader to full-scale potential by closing the gaps.
Your job as a startup founder is to acknowledge the water (e.g., the barrier between where your leaders are today and where you need them to be tomorrow) and then create a strong bridge for them to cross.
You can’t expect leaders to dive into the water alone and hope that they’ll swim safely to the other shore. Instead, you must provide them a safe, efficient, and clear-cut way to get across for their benefit, as well as the benefit of your organization. Only after you’ve moved all your leaders across can you start exploring new territory and expanding your horizons.
How can you find the leadership gaps on your team?
To get your leaders to their next level of professional development (e.g., the other side of the river), involves measuring their leadership aptitudes in a variety of areas. There are numerous tools to achieve this goal, including written assessments that are designed to determine an individual’s core competencies against a continuum.
For example, an assessment may measure a leader’s communication abilities, digital literacy proficiency, emotional intelligence, creativity, inclusivity, or decision-making powers. You can lean on your leaders’ assessment results to offer them the individualized and group education they need to nurture their innate talents. That way, they can be assets — and help you build a high-growth, economically strong venture.
It’s important not to take this step lightly, especially if you want to remain competitive. According to a 2023 Deloitte survey, just 23% of business people feel that their leaders are able to meet the leadership needs of the modern, boundaryless, asynchronous workplace. Consequently, closing your leadership gaps can make your organization stand out.
What are the common types of leadership gaps and their warning signs?
Leadership gaps can be unique to a given business. Nevertheless, some leadership gaps are quite common within startups and other organizations.
The first frequently seen leadership gap is a gap in technical expertise. Technical expertise can encompass anything from a lack of digital proficiency to a lack of knowledge about the technical equipment, information, or protocols involved in a specific industry. Without technical expertise at the leadership level, your employees will have difficulty getting the answers and managerial assistance they need and expect.
Soft skills leadership deficiencies are also commonplace. Soft skills tend to involve human interactions, such as the ability to communicate effectively, show empathy, and handle conflicts. Leaders without soft skills may come across as cold or unfeeling; this can lead to confusion, frustration, and turnover.
A third leadership gap involves limitations related to strategic thinking. The world changes quickly, and decisions need to be made rapidly. Sometimes, leaders don’t have all the facts; they must be able to strategize confidently, especially when answers are needed fast.
Another leadership gap area that’s not always recognized (but is highly important) is a failure to succession plan. All leaders need to put succession planning measures into place. Otherwise, their roles will not be filled promptly when they’re no longer part of the company.
The warning signs of leadership gaps aren’t always obvious and may be deceptively subtle. For instance, you may start to see a lot of cultural turmoil and not realize that it stems from a leadership gap rather than another factor.
Another red flag for leadership gaps is a lack of decision-making on the part of a leader. Alternatively, the leader may make all decisions solo, even when there’s time to gather data, talk to others, and become more informed. Likewise, micromanagement can indicate a leadership gap. Leaders who feel overwhelmed may feel the need to control their employees’ and colleagues’ work.
When you see symptoms of leadership gaps, you aren’t relegated to figuring out what’s going on without help. Plenty of leadership gap analysis tools exist to help you and your leaders understand where your gaps lie.
What are some common leadership gap analysis tools?
If you’re new to exploring leadership gap assessment tools, you may want to start with some of the most frequently recognized. Many have free versions to give you a taste of what they offer.
Heading the list of traditional leadership assessment options is the DiSC assessment. The DiSC assessment measures a leader’s aptitude in each of four areas: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Because DiSC is broad, it may be beneficial to use it in conjunction with another type of tool that drills more deeply into leadership skills.
For instance, a 360-degree leadership assessment can be a good choice if your team has been in place for a while and needs more than a DiSC assessment to identify leadership gaps. A 360-degree assessment retrieves and analyzes information from a leader’s colleagues to provide a holistic look at the leader’s strengths and challenges from both internal and external perspectives.
Now, if you’re just starting up a business, you may not yet have a team to produce a statistically significant 360-degree assessment of your leaders. In that case, you could turn to other assessments such as the Hogan Assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test, or the CliftonStrengths™ from Gallup.
The Hogan Assessment aims to provide a predictive snapshot of how well a leader is likely to perform based on a variety of data points. It’s quite thorough and used by many companies, including during the hiring process.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test may remind you of the DiSC assessment tool. However, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators place leaders into one of 16 different categories rather than into four categories. Still, it may oversimplify or overlook core talents that other assessments that are far more personalized provide.
As a relative newcomer to leadership assessment tools, CliftonStrengths from Gallup has risen in its influence. CliftonStrengths focuses on uncovering individuals’ natural abilities as well as opportunities for improvements.
Individualized assessment tools aren’t your only options. You can also measure leadership gaps from an organizational framework. After all, you might have strong leaders in place but not have the processes or relationships necessary to drive success. Your leaders could be hampered by inefficient workflows or complicated (and unnecessary) protocols that make them ineffective despite their having the innate skills to do their job functions.
In smaller, flatter organizations, skills matrices can assist in constructing a catalogue of leadership inventories. With an inventory in hand of the leadership abilities across your startup, you could then see your leadership gaps and either fill them through upskilling or talent acquisition.
How can you assess your organization’s leadership capacity?
Once you’ve conducted a leadership gap audit through the use of your preferred assessment tools (and possibly with the help of a consultant), you can look at your findings objectively and evaluate your bench strength: Where is your organization strong in terms of its existing leaders? Are you succession-ready, if someone leaves?
You can also start to determine which of your leaders are high-potential versus which are high performers. High-potential leaders may not have the skills and training, but they have the innate talents to lead your company into the future. High performers are already showing themselves as effective leaders, but they may be valuable in other areas of your company. (In other words, they could be untapped human resources.)
It’s a good idea to assess your leadership culture and effectiveness against your organizational dynamics and business outcomes, too. Again, this will give you a clearer view of exactly how leadership gaps are affecting your startup from every angle.
How can you create action plans to fill leadership gaps?
Once you know your leadership gaps, you can start to build bridges to overcome them. Five ways to make that happen include the following.
1. Develop targeted leadership development programs
Rather than taking a scattershot approach, you may want to work with a consultant or coach to construct targeted training plans for each person. Or, you may wish to train all your leaders in the same areas to ensure you have duplicative skills sets. This is where being a part of an incubator like the Missouri Innovation Center can be beneficial. You can leverage the experience of professionals who are well-versed in leadership development programming and can make recommendations.
2. Recruit talent
Sometimes, recruiting new people makes the most sense for your startup. You could even consider hiring fractional leaders, such as part-time CFOs or CMOs. By choosing talented leaders who possess the skills your leadership team lacks, you can rapidly fill gaps.
3. Mentor and coach leaders
Setting up a formal mentoring program can allow leaders to learn from other seasoned leaders. Mentoring can be critical to the development of leaders. Unfortunately, some statistics suggest that fewer than four out of 10 professionals have a mentor, despite three-quarters of them believing in the power of mentorship. Making it easier for your leaders to enjoy the advantages of mentorship will pay dividends back to your organization.
4. Offer job rotation and “stretch” assignments
Doing a job can be a great way to learn a skill. If you realize that you and other leaders lack an understanding of certain roles and functions, assign them to work on those roles and functions for a period. They’ll gain insight and expertise; plus, they may find it easier to empathize with employees in those positions. Along these same lines, consider assigning emerging leaders some projects that will require them to push their limits.
5. Create leadership succession pathways
Sit down with your leaders to discuss their goals. Then, use what you find to create promotional and leadership succession maps. Creating succession pathways, particularly for leaders who are interested in rising through your organization, helps them feel more invested in your organization and excited about learning.
How do you know that leadership gap plans are working?
After putting your leadership gap plans into place, you’ll want to make sure they produce the outcomes you desire.
You can measure how well leadership gap plans are working by setting key performance indicators (KPIs), along with anticipated (and realistic) timeframes. Case in point, you may want to see a 10% turnover decrease across your organization or within a certain department within six months or a year. You can use that specific goal as a KPI.
Measuring and monitoring KPIs will help you calculate the ROI of your leadership development investments. Accordingly, you can continuously make adjustments to ensure that you’re progressing.
What are a few common leadership gap planning pitfalls to avoid?
Any plan can go sideways. Consequently, be on the lookout for a few leadership gap planning pitfalls.
First, avoid focusing all your attention on your C-suite and senior leadership team members. They won’t be with your organization forever; you should spend time, funds, and effort on your organization’s next generation of leaders.
Next, try not to rely mainly on external hiring to fill all your leadership gaps. This can lead to a bloated payroll, which can cause financial difficulties. Paying to train your current leaders may be more cost-conscious. That said, you may want to fill some openings; in that case, be sure your leadership talent pipeline is diverse.
Finally, be sure to identify leadership gap solutions that are targeted to align with your organization and its strategic aims. Generic, one-size-fits-most leadership gap plans are unlikely to move the needle in a long-lasting and substantive way.
Bridging leadership gaps for your organization’s future success
Every organization has leadership gaps. But by spending time identifying your gaps now through a thorough assessment of your leadership and organizational strengths and weaknesses, you make it possible for your current and budding leaders to realize their capabilities and be more confident contributors. In no time, they’ll be crossing the bridge that will lead them (and your business) into a stronger, more fulfilling future.
