Before the Title

Why the best leaders are built before they're promoted

Most companies promote people into leadership and then wonder why everything falls apart.

One VP of Sales I worked with flipped that script. She refused to promote anyone until they'd proven they actually wanted to lead—not just claimed they wanted it.

Here's the truth: promoting someone and then teaching them how to lead is like throwing someone into the deep end and then handing them a swim manual. The damage is already done. Not just to them, but to the team they're now fumbling through, to the high performers who suddenly find themselves under a flailing new manager, to the company culture that just absorbed another amateur in a critical role.

So this VP built something different. Six months of leadership development before anyone got a team. Candidates chosen by her. Curriculum sketched out by her. She didn't wait for HR approval or corporate blessing because she understood something most leaders miss—if you want strong leaders, you have to build them yourself.

When you train people before you promote them, you get clarity. For them and for you. You create a leadership greenhouse where people can try on the role before the stakes get high, before someone's paycheck depends on them, before they're too proud or scared to admit they're not ready.

The ones who want to lead step forward clearer and more prepared. The ones who don't want to lead self-select out with dignity—not because they're lesser, but because they're honest about what energizes them. Your investment wasn't wasted. It was protective of your culture, your performance, your people.

I can attest to it working. I interviewed fifteen of her leaders. Every single one was strong. Not performing strength—actually strong. The kind who could handle hard conversations, develop their people, and deliver results without destroying morale.

Here's what she built that most companies miss:

Real succession planning. Not the annual exercise where HR asks "who's your backup?" and gets a shrug. Actual pipeline development with people ready to step up.

Ongoing talent spotting. Requiring leaders to nominate candidates meant they were constantly watching for leadership potential in real time. Who stepped up during the crisis? Who coached the struggling teammate?

A team culture where leadership was part of the success ecosystem. Leadership development wasn't fluffy—it was tied directly to results. Team performance improved. Retention went up. Revenue targets got hit more consistently.

That VP understood something most organizations miss entirely: leadership is not a gift you bestow. It's a craft you build. And you don't wait for permission to build it.

If this is your first go at structured leadership training, don't force existing managers through the series. They don't have time and won't make time.

Start with the program as designed—for non-managers who might become leaders. Give existing managers a study guide so they know what their nominees are learning. Build in moments where attendees share insights from the program.

You create productive status pressure where someone who works for them now has more leadership skills than they do. Build momentum until existing managers start asking for the training themselves. That's when real change happens—when leaders want what you're offering instead of resenting what you're requiring.

What about managers hired from the outside? Because of this program, that rarely happened on the VP's teams. But when it did, that new manager had runway to take the leadership training before they were assigned their team. It's rethinking everyone. It's forcing you to keep building the next leaders top of mind.

If we stopped treating leadership like a reward and started treating it like a responsibility, this kind of proactive training wouldn't be rare. It would be standard.

Because every time we promote someone and then start their development, we're already too late.