What drives the gap between leaders knowing what to do and doing it?

What creates or widens the gap between leaders knowing what to do and doing it?

If a leader knows what effective leadership looks like in a given situation, what stops them from enacting it?

Well, it’s complex because the gap is due to an interplay of individual factors (Do I have the motivation, confidence, or time to lead?) and contextual factors (to what extent does our organisational purpose, culture, and strategy inspire, empower, and prioritise leadership?).

These factors interact to ultimately influence what leaders think, feel, and do (or don’t do) in each situation.

For example:

• I’m not sure I even want to be a leader.

• What’s wrong with the way I’ve always led?

• I’m not comfortable trying something new.

• If I do it another way, people will judge me.

• I’m not confident I can do what I need to.

• I understand ‘what’ I need to do but not ‘how’.

• It will take too much effort to change.

• I don’t have the time.

• I won’t stick my neck out for something that isn’t valued here.

• Why bother? I doubt anyone will notice whether I do or don’t.

• It’s not like I’ll get recognised or rewarded for it.

• I don’t see any other leaders changing their behaviour.

• My manager doesn’t do it.  

• While I think about it, their manager doesn’t do it either!

Which examples ring true for your organisation? What else would you add to this list?

If you can identify what individual and organisational factors might be getting in the way, you can use this data to inform the design (or redesign) of leadership development solutions that help prevent or close the gap.

The first step is acknowledging that multiple individual and organisational factors interact to create or widen the knowing-doing gap, so it will take a multifaceted leadership development solution to close it.

In other words, you may need to abandon ‘one and done’ leadership programs for solutions that aim to positively impact both individual leadership capability and the organisational system in which leaders operate.

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For more info on the individual and contextual factors that influence the knowing-doing gap check out this article:

Ahmadi, A., & Vogel, B. (2023). Knowing but not enacting leadership: Navigating the leadership knowing-doing gap in leveraging leadership development. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22(3), 507–530.