The Real Reason Companies Can't Find Leaders Anymore

YouTube Version (If You'd Rather Watch 👉) https://youtu.be/hJn8b0S-qDs

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You may not realize that we’re living through an urgent leadership crisis.

The leadership pipeline is collapsing.

And current and future leaders need to wake up before it’s too late.

You see, the leadership bench is empty, and Gen Z is now exposing that.

Recent studies find that the current generation entering the workforce (Gen Z) is not producing very many leaders.

Other studies reveal that Gen Z leaders who are entering the workforce feel completely lost.

They’re not being given the adequate coaching needed to lead effectively and confidently.

A recent study found that 83% of Gen Z feel unprepared for the workforce.

You see, we failed to develop Gen Z, but now we’re expecting them to lead?

That’s not how this thing works.

We can do better.

We need to dig into some good old-fashioned leadership development.

That’s what this episode is all about.

Because we don’t have a Gen Z problem. We have a leadership development problem.

I say this with 100% confidence because I lead a team primarily made up of Gen Z.

I’m not an educational guru; I’m just a practitioner serving fellow soldiers in the trenches.

The stuff we’re going to talk about today is the playbook I built for the people I lead, and it’s worked for us.

Imagine for a moment if leadership development could be simple.

What if, instead of new leaders feeling lost, lonely, and unprepared, they could feel confident and empowered?

That’s been our experience.

Look, I know what it’s like to feel lost and unprepared as a leader.

My first leadership role was when I was 18.

I led teams of people who were much older and more experienced than I was.

I encountered issues and conflicts that I had no idea how to handle.

I had to get up on stage and address hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people without much experience.

I made all sorts of mistakes.

It was so intimidating and confusing at times.

And maybe that’s how you’re feeling right now.

Whether you’re Gen Z experiencing that first-hand, or maybe you’re an experienced leader wondering how to invest in Gen Z, this is urgent.

Whether it’s delegation, conflict management, decision-making, giving and receiving feedback, or communication, leadership demands a lot of learned skills.

And sometimes you just need leaders who are a bit ahead of you to help you walk through those challenges.

Throughout the years, my leadership roles have continued to adapt and grow, from the individual level to the organizational level.

Now, 15 years later, I feel like I can finally look back and identify what effective leadership development looks like.

I see what worked in my own journey, and now I have the privilege of serving others in theirs.

So, today, I’m going to give you a 4-stage leadership development framework I built from my personal experience for my team, which can give you the tools you need to develop yourself or your team into strong, confident, and capable leaders.

I’ve experienced three of the four stages we’re going to look at today, and I’m currently working on the fourth stage.

Jury’s out on whether I’ll actually achieve the fourth stage, we’ll see.

But that's what this leadership community is all about!

 

As always, thank you for spending this time with me. I know you’re busy, which is why I try to pack as much value as I can into each and every episode.

So, with that said, let’s get into today’s content.

I’ve created a leadership development workbook to accompany this episode.

It’s got all the information, resource recommendations, and note-taking sections that support what we’ll discuss.

Feel free to download it before we get started (here's a link)

👉 https://www.zachwhite.com/leadershipdevelopmentworkbook

It’ll definitely give you the most value from our time together.

If you can print it out, that’s even better.

It’s also a great tool to put in your team's hands for their leadership development.

 

 

Alright, let’s look at the first stage.

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STAGE 1: Self-Leadership (Personal Formation)

Without question, every leader’s journey starts with some kind of personal formation.

I like to refer to this first stage as self-leadership.

To lead others, you have to learn how to lead yourself first.

Now, what does that even mean?

Well, we’re talking about things like self-discipline, mindset, worldview, habit-formation, purpose, character, and if you’re a person of faith like me, then you’d be looking at things like calling and spiritual formation.

Now, keep in mind, this first stage is already pretty rare.

Unfortunately, most people go through life without taking personal formation seriously.

Or if they do, it’s not very deep or thorough.

But not leaders.

Every leader has to go through this process.

Let me give you three principles that embody what this stage looks like.

1. A Hunger for Learning

2. A Humility to Follow

3. A Passionate Pursuit

Let me break these down.

First, a hunger for learning.

I’ve never known a leader who didn’t have a love and hunger for learning in some way.

It could be reading, it could be researching, it could be seminars or conferences, whatever it is. There’s a hunger there.

So, if you haven’t developed that hunger yet, then something needs to give.

Either you haven’t found what you’re passionate about, or you associate learning with the negative side of academia, or you genuinely have a laziness issue that you need to address.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it; there’s zero opportunity for laziness in leadership.

You can’t be lazy and be a leader.

I’m still your friend no matter what, but I can’t help you if you’re unwilling to cultivate a strong work ethic.

You need to develop a hunger for learning new things in order to be unleashed as a leader.

Now, if that’s interesting to you, but you just don’t know where to start.

Again, download the leadership development workbook, and then you’ll see a list of book recommendations in this first stage of self-leadership.

These are books I compiled that opened my eyes to the world of leadership and sparked an ongoing hunger for learning.

I get that a lot of people just need to know where to start, and then they can take the ball and run with it.

That’s why I made this.

This is your starting line.

This is where the leadership journey begins.

Just work through the list, and I think you’ll be very pleased with the results.

Now, in this first stage, you can’t just have a hunger for learning; you also have to have the humility to follow and to submit to other leadership.

I can’t even begin to tell you how crucial this is.

I remember when I was 18, I was leading a team of adults performing at a pretty high level, but I was also part of a youth team performing at a more amateur level, where someone else was in charge.

It was a very unique situation, and I often found it very frustrating.

I remember expressing my frustration to my father at one point about how I felt like the leadership of the youth team wasn’t very good and how I felt like I could do it better with what I was learning from my current leadership experience, blah blah blah.

And my father delivered some of the best advice that I needed to hear.

He said, “Son, that may be true, but this is an opportunity for you to practice humility. You can’t lead until you learn how to follow. This experience, of submitting to other leadership, will make you a better leader in the long run. So, I would just be humble and support the team from your current position.”

So good, and so true.

It’s exactly what that 18-year-old version of myself needed to hear at the time.

My frustration might have been real and valid, but I still had an opportunity to develop humility.

I don’t care how experienced you are as a leader; the best leaders prioritize humility.

 

Then lastly, in stage one, we have the passionate pursuit.

Stage one can’t be aimless.

You’ve got to have a target on the wall, and it can’t be a moving target.

It’s kind of like that old adage, “If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.”

A lot of people operate that way, but not leaders.

Leaders are locked into a compass.

They know where true north is.

And that’s what this passionate pursuit is all about.

This is what Simon Sinek calls “The Why.”

You need to find what you’re passionate about and pursue it with all-out intensity.

And it can’t be vague.

It needs to be specific, measurable, and meaningful.

You need to find something that you can genuinely give your life to.

I found mine at 18.

It was either going to be a Navy SEAL or I was going into ministry.

And I remember there was a summer where I was doing the a SEALs prep program one of my buddies gave me.

I got in the best shape of my life, but throughout the whole summer, I couldn’t shake the reality that God was calling me into ministry.

So, that’s what I did.

I didn’t have all the answers, but I knew what to passionately pursue with my life.

You don’t need 100% clarity about every little thing, but you do need to follow a compass and know where true north is.

That might take some work, but you can’t skip it; you’ve got to put in the work.

Now, here’s the cool thing.

If you take stage one seriously, like, you really put in the work, then you’re already doing what the vast majority of people never do.

People will look at you and see someone who’s hungry, chomping at the bit, locked in, humble, and growing like crazy.

In other words, people are going to notice you.

They’re going to admire your growth, your resolve, and your passion, and you’re going to start building influence.

Now we’re ready to enter stage two.

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STAGE 2: Leading Others (Micro leadership)

This is the stage where you shift from self-leadership to leading others.

This is where your work in stage one starts to positively impact others around you.

People will start to notice what you’ve developed on a personal level, which will establish your influence and credibility at the leadership level.

Leadership, after all, is influence.

And the challenge now is to learn how to effectively deal with people.

Again, if you’re following along in the workbook, you’ll notice a different type of recommended resource for this stage.

These resources focus on understanding how people are wired, how they’re motivated, how they think, and how to communicate with them strategically.

There are some books, but there are also some assessments that you can experiment with.

This stage is still very much about developing yourself as a leader, but in the context of learning how your leadership affects others.

In other words, this stage is where you’re learning and practicing skills like empathy, communication, conflict resolution, and much more.

You’re taking everything you’ve developed in stage one, and you’re now applying it to help, serve, and lead people.

This can be a significant learning curve for some people.

This stage might have been one of the hardest for me personally.

For instance, I’m naturally a very non-empathetic person.

I’m more of a “suck-it-up, buttercup” kind of guy.

I can find myself charging full steam ahead while completely forgetting and neglecting people's emotions or limitations.

Trust me, I had to learn these skills the hard way.

But that’s what this stage is for.

You’re learning how to deal with people.

You’re learning emotional skills and social awareness.

You’re learning how to be street-smart.

You’re also learning how the world doesn’t revolve around you.

Everyone is so unique, and a leader’s job is to recognize each individual's intrinsic uniqueness and meet them where they’re at.

You can tell an amateur leader from an experienced leader by how they view and treat people.

I think it was John Maxwell who said something along the lines of, “The moment you stop loving people is the moment you should stop leading people.”

So true.

Stage two is powerful.

So, dive into the resource list I’ve given you.

It’s full of helpful tools to get you started.

You can do amazing things in stage two.

In fact, a lot of leaders get to stage two and never leave.

And that’s okay!

Stage two leaders are 100% critical.

But there’s a third stage of leadership we need to talk about that a very select number of leaders enter into.

STAGE 3: Organizational Leadership (Macro Leadership)

This stage is where you transition from leading individuals and learn the skills needed to lead teams, businesses, and organizations.

In other words, you go from micro leadership to macro leadership.

This is where we focus on developing things like culture, scaling, organizational structure, organizational systems, and so much more.

It’s also the stage where you usually have to re-learn or upgrade certain skills, like delegation and communication, and rethink what effectiveness looks like.

The level at which you used to operate is no longer viable for this new stage.

This is why each leadership stage is never-ending.

With each stage comes an entirely new learning curve.

The stakes are usually much higher at this stage.

You’re usually leading a much bigger entity, you’re dealing with bigger numbers, and you’re leading bigger initiatives.

A lot of leaders struggle to find their footing in this stage.

They might have had a vision for individual leadership, but they can’t seem to catch a vision for this new macro leadership.

The transition from individual leadership to organizational leadership is one of the hardest learning curves for many leaders.

Sometimes, the hardest part is letting go of what you loved about micro leadership.

This is a transition I’m living in right now.

For instance, over the last few years, I’ve had to let go of some things that I really enjoyed.

But I know that if I never let go of those tasks, I wouldn’t be able to embrace this third stage of leadership.

Sometimes, this third stage of leadership also requires us to let go of our early-startup mindset and embrace a bigger vision for a larger organization.

Maybe we led a team of 3-4, and now the team has grown to 8-10.

Or maybe you led 8-10, and now you’re leading a hundred people.

Not only does that require a lot of new skills, but it also requires a lot of personal sacrifice, a lot of uncomfortable change.

And this stage of leadership can look very different depending on your sector, scope of your industry, or the size of your organization.

I’ve included some great resources in the leadership development workbook that can help you navigate this stage of leadership.

 

Now, a lot of people get to this third stage and think that’s it, they’ve arrived.

But there’s a fourth stage.

This is the stage that only a razor-thin margin of leaders will ever achieve.

It takes the best of the best to get to this last stage.

You ready for it?

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STAGE 4: Multi-Generational Leadership

Stage four is all about legacy.

It’s about leading in such a way that your leadership influence continues to live on even after you’re gone.

You lead beyond your own generation.

The history books are obviously rich with stage four leaders.

But think about how rare it is.

Take US history alone, about 600 million people have lived and died in the US since 1776, the year the United States was born.

Okay, now, how many of those 600 million do you read about in the history books?

How many of them had a great enough impact and influence in the world that they were forever remembered?

How many of them built something that lasted multiple generations?

In other words, how many of them became stage four leaders?

Very few.

Now, as a Christian, I don’t believe that your worth as a leader is tied to whether you’re written about in history books.

Leadership is not about headlines; it’s about meaningful impact.

That comes in all shapes and sizes.

Some of the best leaders on the planet might have never been written about.

But I don’t think you can be a stage-four leader without leaving a meaningful legacy behind.

For instance, my grandfather turned 90 recently.

He’s never been written about in a history book; I don’t think he’s ever been in the newspaper; he didn’t have some iconic job; he honestly lived a pretty normal life.

But I consider him a stage-four leader because of how he led his family, finished well, and invested in the next generation.

You see, stage four leadership is about finishing well.

It has more to do with character than accomplishments.

It has more to do with faithfulness than fame.

There was an author that I really liked and respected who recently admitted to a long-term secret affair.

He was in his late 70s when the news broke, and it came with his public announcement of retirement.

When I heard that news, it broke my heart.

To spend a lifetime leading and to be so close to finishing well, only to fumble on the 1-yard line.

But that’s the thing, staying faithful to the end is not guaranteed.

It’s a choice you have to make.

I don’t care how much experience, wisdom, or influence you’ve accrued; you’re just as vulnerable as anyone to falling victim to moral failure.

Finishing well is all about staying faithful every single day.

Whether you’re 19 or 90, it’s a choice.

We’re never promised another day.

The journey to stage four leadership is all about choosing to be faithful one day at a time.

Personally, the only path I see to that is the one where I walk closely with God.

He’s my strength.

He’s my guide.

He’s my compass.

I know the only way for me to finish well is to lean on Him every single step of the way.

I want to invite you to go on that journey with me.

Let’s hold each other accountable.

It’s not going to be easy.

But we’ve got to try.

And maybe if we do, we’ll see our leadership serve generation after generation!

How amazing would that be?!

As always, keep fighting that good fight.

 

I’ll see you again real soon.