Your Biggest Liability Is Hiding in Plain Sight: The Untrained Manager

Brandon Stevens

‍

You promote your best individual contributor into management because there’s nowhere else for them to go. You give them a team, a title, and a target. Eighteen months later, that new manager has either quit or is now leading a disengaged, underperforming team.

Sound familiar? It should. A staggering 46% of all new leaders fail within their first 18 months. (Leadership IQ)

This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s a systemic crisis. We identify top talent by their ability to do the work, then reward them with a job that requires a completely different skill set: the ability to lead others to do the work. We throw them into a “player/coach” role without the training, data, or support to succeed. Short-term KPIs become a tyranny, and essential long-term activities like employee development are sacrificed.

The result? A revolving door of talent and a leadership pipeline that’s bone dry. In 2025, 77% of companies report a lack of leadership depth at every level. In an era of AI disruption, intense board pressure, and zero-tolerance budgets, this isn’t just a people problem — it’s a critical business vulnerability.

The False Economy of “No Time for This”

I hear the pushback constantly: “We can’t afford a full leadership assessment process right now.”

The reality is, you’re already paying. You’re paying in:

• $200,000+ backfills for failed leadership hires.
• High-performer attrition as your best people leave to escape bad managers.
• $20K–$50K executive coaching “cleanups” to fix problems that should have been prevented.
• Succession plans that go nowhere, leaving you exposed when key roles open up.

Let me be clear: Assessment is not the expense. Misjudging readiness is.

You are going to pay either way. The only question is whether you want to pay for confidence or for cleanup.

From Reactive Cleanup to Strategic Advantage

Shifting from a reactive to a proactive leadership strategy isn’t about adding another task to your plate. It’s about deploying a strategic toolkit to de-risk your most important investments: your people.

This is a continuous improvement loop — a flywheel for talent development:

1. Assess First: Predictive tools and behavioral data cut through the noise. They show you who is truly ready to lead versus who is simply a great performer. Competency models ensure every promotion decision directly supports your company’s strategic goals. This isn’t about personality quizzes; it’s about surfacing real risks and potential before you make a move.
2. Train with Purpose: The insights from assessment directly inform targeted training programs. This stops the “one-size-fits-all” training that wastes time and money. Instead, you equip emerging leaders with the specific skills they need to handle the new pressures of management, accelerating their ramp-up time and mitigating the risk of failure.
3. Measure and Deploy: Post-training assessments verify that the investment worked, creating a clear baseline for performance and proving ROI. This continuous cycle creates what every organization desperately needs: a resilient, adaptable, and high-performing leadership corps ready for anything.

The Choice Is Yours

This is more than an HR initiative; it’s a strategic imperative. By embedding assessment and training into your talent lifecycle, you move faster, seize opportunities, and build a culture of growth that top talent craves.

• Drive Real Growth: Deploy skilled teams to new markets and projects faster than your competition.
• Boost Engagement: Show your employees you are invested in their careers, dramatically increasing retention and morale.
• Win Customers: Well-led teams are focused, innovative, and deliver a superior customer experience that drives loyalty and revenue.

The market pressures are only increasing. The gaps in your leadership pipeline are a direct threat to your future success.

The question for every leader is simple: Will you continue to pay the high price of cleanup, or will you make the strategic investment in confidence?

Our team at Scoutr can help you with that strategic investment, using forward deployment to train managers, followed by a talent intelligence engine that will boost engagement and drive growth. To learn more, contact us at info@scoutr.team.

‍