Great at your job. But are you prepared to lead?
Most leaders are promoted because they’re excellent at what they do—not because they’ve been taught how to manage people. That gap can lead to poor communication, frustrated teams, and missed opportunities for growth.
In Episode 86 of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Coach Keith Shaw, an executive coach and HR leader with over 20 years of Fortune 500 experience, to explore the missing link in leadership development: leadership awareness.
Here are five key lessons from their conversation.
1. Leadership Starts With Awareness
“You cannot fix what you cannot see.”
Leadership training is valuable, but improvement begins with recognizing where development is needed.
Shaw emphasizes the importance of self-assessment. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and leadership behaviors helps you identify the skills that need attention.
Take action: Assess your leadership habits, ask for feedback, and identify one area to improve.
2. Great Performers Need Support to Become Great Leaders
Being an outstanding employee doesn’t automatically make someone an effective manager.
When organizations promote their best performers without providing leadership development, they can set those individuals up to struggle.
The solution is to develop essential skills such as communication, coaching, delegation, and conflict resolution.
Take action: Make leadership development part of your promotion process—not something that happens after problems arise.
3. Adapt Your Leadership Style to Your People
“Treat people the way they want to be treated.”
Shaw discusses the Platinum Rule, which encourages leaders to understand how others prefer to communicate, collaborate, and receive feedback.
He also explores DISC behavioral styles as a tool for recognizing differences in how people work.
Effective leadership isn’t about using one approach with everyone. It’s about adapting your approach to help individuals succeed.
Take action: Ask team members how they prefer to receive feedback and support.
4. Turn Leadership Goals Into Daily Habits
Leadership growth requires more than attending training sessions. It takes intentional practice.
Shaw encourages leaders to create a written personal development plan with clear goals and actionable steps.
An extra hour of daily learning can make a difference, but even 15 focused minutes can build momentum.
Take action: Choose one leadership skill, practice it daily, and review your progress regularly.
5. Be Demanding Without Being Demeaning
“You can be demanding without being demeaning.”
Servant leadership isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about creating an environment where people have the support, resources, and confidence to succeed.
Rather than relying on command and control, effective leaders remove obstacles, develop their teams, and maintain accountability.
Take action: Ask your team what’s preventing them from succeeding—and help remove those barriers.
Leadership Development Is Continuous Improvement
The biggest takeaway from Keith Shaw’s conversation is simple: You can’t improve what you don’t recognize.
Just like continuous improvement in business, leadership development requires awareness, clear goals, intentional action, and consistent evaluation.
At KPI Fire, we believe meaningful progress comes from connecting goals with measurable actions. The same approach can help leaders turn personal development into lasting results.
Don’t just promote great performers. Develop great leaders.
Listen to the Full Episode
🎙️ Discover more practical insights from Coach Keith Shaw in KPI Fireside Episode 86: The Missing Link in Leadership Development.
Connect with Coach Keith Shaw | Visit Coach Keith Shaw’s Website
