Hey Unfiltered Folks,

Answer: Because you promoted doers, not leaders.

You took your best ICs and made them managers. But you never trained them to lead.

They still think like ICs. They still do the work themselves. They don't delegate. They don't develop people. '

This is your fault.

You promoted them without training them. Now you have expensive ICs with manager titles. They're in the weeds while real leadership work goes undone.

Question to Consider: Who on your leadership team is developing other leaders?

Why: Promoting doers into leadership without training creates this mess.

Here's what happened: you had great ICs. They crushed it. So you promoted them. They became managers.

But you never taught them how to manage.

So they kept doing what they're good at: individual work. Now they have teams, but they're not leading. They're doing. They're in the weeds. They're not developing people. They're not thinking strategically. They're just high-paid ICs.

The cost? Your leadership team can't scale. They're bottlenecks. Their teams aren't growing because no one's developing them. Real leadership problems like strategy, culture, and cross-team collaboration aren't getting solved because your leaders are in the weeds.

Your best ICs watch this and don't want to be promoted. They see that leadership means the same work with more meetings. So they leave or stay in IC.

You've created a fake leadership layer. They have the titles but not the mindset.

Action: Be direct with your leadership team this week: "Your job is to develop leaders, not do the work."

Give each one 90 days to train someone to do their old role.
Coach them weekly.
Teach them to delegate.

If they can't make the shift after genuine training, move them back to IC.

Not everyone should be a leader. That's okay. Create paths for both.

Stay Unfiltered,
— Andy

P.S. Not everyone should be a leader.