Most leadership development focuses on helping leaders learn something new. The assumption is simple: if people understand better leadership practices, they’ll become better leaders.

But after more than 30 years working with leaders, managers and executive teams, I’ve become convinced that understanding and learning are complementary but definitely not the same thing.

I have asked hundreds of leaders over the years what is learning? The most common definitions are around “knowing” new things. Maybe that’s a educational system legacy that traditionally has prized knowledge (being educated) over application.

In business the bigger challenge we see for all our learners is turning knowledge into sustained changed behaviour.

It’s not uncommon to meet leaders who have attended multiple leadership programmes over the course of their careers. They’ve learned about coaching conversations, delegation, psychological safety, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking and feedback.

Many can explain these concepts exceptionally well.

But if you spend time talking to their teams, a different picture often emerges. The coaching conversations aren’t happening consistently. Feedback is still being avoided. Delegation remains difficult. Decision-making becomes reactive under pressure.

There is often a gap between knowing and doing.

The research backs this up with estimates that between only 15 and 47% (Gallop, Mckinsay et al) of leadership learners are putting new learning into practice. The cost of this gap is staggering: one estimate puts it at $13.5 million per year per 1,000 employees due to ineffective training

The fitness analogy

Leadership development reminds me a little of fitness. Most of us already know what good health looks like. We know we should exercise regularly. We know we should sleep more. We know we should manage stress. We know we should eat better.

The problem isn’t knowledge.

The problem is translating knowledge into habits that survive real life.

Leadership is remarkably similar. Attending a leadership programme is a bit like attending a seminar on fitness. You may leave inspired. You may learn useful techniques. You may even change a few things immediately.

But lasting change requires something different.

Practice. Repetition. Reflection. Feedback. Adjustment. Time.

Knowledge can create awareness. But behaviour change requires personal transformation.

Why knowledge alone doesn’t change behaviour

There are undoubtedly many organisational cultural elements at play here like safety, competition, risk taking etc. At an individual level many leadership behaviours are connected to assumptions we’ve built over decades and how we make sense of the world.

Why do some leaders struggle to delegate? Often it isn’t because they don’t know how. It’s because they believe their value comes from having the answers.

Why do some leaders avoid difficult conversations? Usually it isn’t because they haven’t learned a feedback model. It’s because conflict feels uncomfortable or risky.

Why do experienced leaders become defensive when challenged? Often because challenge feels personal rather than informative.

These aren’t capability problems. They’re meaning-making problems. They’re connected to how leaders see themselves, their role and the world around them (their mindset). And that’s where traditional leadership development often reaches its limits.

The hidden constraint

Most leadership development is what researchers call horizontal development. It adds new skills, knowledge and tools. Those things matter. Leaders need them. But there is another dimension of development that receives far less attention.

If horizontal development adds tools to the toolbox, vertical development expands the capacity of the person holding the toolbox. It changes how leaders think. How they interpret situations. How they hold complexity. How they respond under pressure.

This matters because today’s leadership challenges are increasingly complex.

– Leaders are expected to navigate AI adoption while maintaining trust

– Balance performance and wellbeing

– Respond to multiple stakeholder groups with competing interests

– Lead through ambiguity where there is no obvious right answer

In these situations, the challenge is rarely a lack of knowledge.

The challenge is whether leaders have the capacity to hold the complexity of the situation.

Why busy leaders struggle to grow

One of the biggest barriers to leadership development is surprisingly simple.

Busyness.

Most managers and leaders spend their days moving from meeting to meeting, solving problems, responding to emails and making decisions. Activity becomes the default setting.

Yet meaningful development requires something activity often crowds out. Reflection.

Experience alone does not create growth. In fact, experience can simply reinforce existing habits. Growth happens when people step back and make sense of their experience.

– When they question assumptions

– When they experiment with new approaches

– When they receive honest feedback

– When they take time to think.

Without that process, leadership development can become a little like scattering seeds and then crossing your fingers. The ideas land. But they struggle to take root.

Developing leaders for complexity

Research into vertical development consistently points to three conditions that accelerate growth.

– First, leaders need genuine stretch experiences where the answer isn’t known in advance

– Second, they need exposure to different perspectives that challenge existing assumptions

– Third, they need structured reflection that helps turn experience into insight.

Interestingly, many organisations provide plenty of learning but relatively little of these three conditions.

We send people to programmes. We give them frameworks. We provide content. But we don’t always create the environment where deeper development can occur.

A different question

Perhaps the question organisations should be asking is not:

“What new skills do our leaders need?”

A better question might be:

“What is stopping our leaders from consistently applying what they already know?”

For many organisations, that question leads somewhere interesting.

The issue often isn’t a shortage of leadership content. It’s the capacity of leaders to integrate, apply and sustain what they have learned in increasingly complex environments.

That’s why leadership development can no longer be just about updating skills. It has to contribute to developmental growth that supports changes in thinking and behavioural choices .

At Mantle we call that a leadership mindset (how leader sees the world and makes sense of it) and in our experience it fundamentally drives the deployment of new skills and the application of new tools.

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