We keep promoting people because they're great at the work, then handing them a team and hoping they figure out the rest. Across a year of in-depth conversations with leaders throughout the industry, this was one of four patterns that kept coming up, no matter who we were speaking to.
In this solo episode, Andrea Janzen breaks down those four patterns, then takes on the question almost everyone asked during our conversations: how do you actually know whether the money you put into leadership development is doing anything? What’s the ROI on leadership development?
In this episode, we cover:
Why "They’re good at the work, so we made them a manager," keeps producing leaders who were never taught to lead
The same realization from people across the industry who’d never met: you can teach the technical side, but leading people is the hard part
Why the best companies hire and promote on potential, not only years of experience
What's worth measuring to know your leadership development is working
Where to start: don’t get overwhelmed starting huge – name the two or three people you're counting on in three years
The 2025 Building Better report referenced in this episode is Ambition Theory's research partnership with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER).
Rethinking Leadership in the Built World is hosted by Andrea Janzen, founder of Ambition Theory. Each episode gets into what it actually takes to develop strong leaders in construction and the built world.
Learn more at ambitiontheory.com. If something here resonated, send it to one person who'd want to hear it.
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