Be Business Fit

The Accidental Leader

Are you an accidental leader? You know, someone who is in a management or leadership position and you look around one day and wonder how you got there? Where you realise you are now responsible for the running of a department, ensuring productivity and sales targets are exceeded, financial budgets are scrutinised and your team perform exceptionally.

Even if you aren’t an accidental leader, we all know at least one. Where people are promoted because they are technically good at their job, are given a more senior job as a way of trying to retain them in the business and provide some recognition for the work that they have done.

Or sometimes, it is because they are “showing potential” and their boss feels that they could operate at a senior level. They apply for the position, they are successful, without necessarily really wanting the position in the first place.

Or it may be that the business has grown rapidly, the number of staff in the department increases and whilst they were once responsible for a team of 2 or 3, that team is now a team of 12 - or more! And now, you have to manage the very people that you used to work with, deal with the legacy people issues that haven’t been dealt with before and do less of the technical elements that you used to love doing and what you are trained in.

People believe because of your job title that you know everything about everything. They think you don’t feel pressure, get anxious, or have self-doubt and look to you to make decisions and come up with the answers.

It is no wonder then, that according to Gallup’s State of the Workplace Report 2025, less than half of the worlds managers have had any training and are feeling more disengaged with reduced levels of wellbeing than before.

This is at a time when the typical organisation is experiencing:

• Post pandemic retirements and turnover
• A hiring boom and bust
• Rapidly restructured teams
• Stretched budgets
• Multi-generational workforce
• Political and economic changes
• Digital transformation and growth of AI
• Employee expectations around flexible working

So the knock on effect to the teams that managers and leaders are responsible for, will be significant.

This has to change and we have to start investing in our managers and leaders by not only giving them meaningful training but also support through coaching.

• By giving newly promoted leaders a coach whilst they onboard in their new role, to set them up for success rather than leave them to figure it out for themselves and potentially get it wrong.
• Having a coach totally impartial and independent, who is not only a private sounding board but also someone that is going to drive the leader to make the right decisions and address the very things that need to be tackled in their business or team, without leaving them to build up for a later point in time.
• To make it normal and acceptable for any manager or leader at any level, to ask for a coach in their business – why wouldn’t we want them to perform at their highest level and give them the best opportunity to achieve that?

By giving managers and leaders the support that they need, they can thrive and when managers and
leaders thrive, so can their teams.

If you are, or you know of an accidental leader, and you would like to know more about how coaching
can support you, please get in touch.

“being coached by a leadership coach isn’t a threat to your authority or a challenge to your competence. It’s not some underhanded commentary that you’re not up to it. It’s a further investment in the fact that you are up to it.” Cody Royle