Are your best workers struggling to lead?
Welcome to another Toolkit Tuesday! Every week, our goal is to give you a practical leadership tool to put in your toolkit.
So There I Was…
When we give our networking pitch, we often say something like this: We help businesses that started solo or with a few partners and then grew.
Usually, once they reach about 10 employees, the owner promotes their best worker to manager. It makes sense on the surface. The person is the best at their job so why not reward them and trust they can level up?
But this hardly ever works out as planned. The newly promoted manager often has no training in how to lead others well or even in how to lead themselves.
That is where we come in. We help train leaders who do not know how to lead and we establish programs that prepare future leaders.
When we share this, owners usually nod and say, Yes, that is exactly what is happening in my business. Or the new manager says, Yes, that is me. I got promoted but I cannot get anyone to follow me now.
The Challenge
Leadership is tough. It is not only about doing your own job well. It is also about helping your people perform at their best. Too many managers are promoted because they were strong individual performers but no one prepared them to lead others. The result is stalled growth, frustration and burned out leaders.
The Tool: 100X Leader Assessment
The 100X Leader Assessment breaks leadership down into two simple parts:
How well are you performing?
How well are you leading others to perform?
Think of it like climbing a mountain. A Sherpa climbs the mountain themselves and also helps others climb. You cannot just run ahead and expect people to follow. You must set the tone, clear the path and support and challenge people along the way.
The assessment asks you to rate both sides on a scale of 1 to 10. The gaps show you where your growth needs to happen. If your own performance is low, focus on raising it first. You cannot give what you do not have. If your team’s performance is low, identify what is holding them back and what you can do to equip them and call them up to higher levels.
Why This Matters Now
Business owners are already maxed out on time. Leadership bottlenecks silently cost them money, productivity and key people. Without a simple way to measure and address leadership gaps, most owners keep hoping the problem will solve itself. It rarely does. The 100X Leader Assessment gives you clarity on where to focus and what to fix right now.
The Result
Leaders who use this tool gain credibility with their people. Teams become healthier and more aligned. Businesses build a culture where people are supported, challenged and able to thrive. Instead of leaders burning out or stalling out, they keep climbing and help others climb with them.
Take Action
Make two lists. One of your own job responsibilities and one of what your direct reports are responsible for. Give yourself a score of 1 to 10 for both your performance and your leadership of others. Identify the biggest gap and take one step this week to improve it.
Schedule a strategy session with us. We will help you assess where leadership bottlenecks are happening and build a plan to close the gaps.
Closing the Loop
Last week we talked about how unclear expectations can break trust. This week’s tool gives you a way to make expectations clear for yourself and your people by putting real numbers to how you are leading.
We often see two outcomes. Some owners hear the cost in money or time and decide not to move forward. Their leadership bottlenecks remain, frustration grows, good people leave and in the end the real cost is money.
Others choose to invest, put in the work and as a result they see healthier leaders, stronger teams and lasting growth.
