What Leadership Gaps Are You Taking Into 2025?

Every leader has areas for improvement—what we call "leadership gaps." The secret to becoming a stronger, more effective leader lies in identifying these gaps and either bridging them or finding ways to work around them. Left unaddressed, even small gaps can expand, impacting a leader’s overall effectiveness.

What Is a Leadership Gap?

A leadership gap is the difference between how a person currently practices leadership and the behaviors exhibited by highly effective leaders. Recognizing and addressing these gaps is crucial: if a leader doesn't understand their own strengths and areas for growth, how can they expect to effectively lead others? To lead well, leaders need to understand both their innate leadership qualities (their potential for leadership) and their application of continuous improvement processes (their practice of leadership).

Based on years of research, interviews, and organizational leadership teaching, we’ve identified nine key dimensions of leadership behavior that can reveal gaps in an individual’s approach:

1. Humility - the recognition of one's own importance or standing
2. Empathy - the ability to identify with the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of others
3. Vision - the ability to see things others don't see or before others can see it
4. Risk-Taking - the acceptance of a certain amount of risk
5. Assessing - understanding the person's strengths, leadership abilities and situation they are leading in
6. Visioning - creating a personalized leadership vision based on their personal assessment
7. Living - executing and communication the leadership vision to their constituents
8. Reflecting - analyzing the leadership encounters faced and how they could be improved
9. Coaching - reviewing the leadership encounters faced with a coach or mentor for advice on future improvement

These nine dimensions fall into two categories, Potential for Leadership (dimensions 1 through 4) and Practice of Leadership (dimensions 5 through 9).

Potential for Leadership

Potential for Leadership refers to the inherent qualities that determine a person’s "leadership ceiling” - a foundation upon which they can build and reach their full leadership potential. The best leaders possess and actively utilize these qualities, maximizing their effectiveness. While these qualities can be enhanced with training, a strong foundation is essential for growth.

?To develop this potential, leaders need to become more aware of their innate qualities and integrate them consistently into their daily leadership approach.

Practice of Leadership

With a strong foundation in place, effective leaders also need to focus on practicing leadership daily. Real improvement only occurs through consistent learning, practice, and review — not through a "one-and-done" course or workshop. Continuous improvement requires a sustainable personal leadership strategy, with ongoing evaluation and coaching.

Leaders can improve their leadership practice by dedicating focused effort to daily leadership activities.

Understanding Your Leadership Snapshot

Analyzing leadership behavior provides a snapshot of an individual’s current strengths and growth areas. By comparing a leader’s scores to the average results from eight years of data (the Population Average) from peers across various levels—C-level executives, managers, and more — a clear picture of their standing emerges.

The Overall Summary Chart compares individual scores in categories like Potential for Leadership, Practice of Leadership, as well as derived Emotional Intelligence, and Situational Awareness. For example, if a leader’s scores fall below average in all categories, this may highlight numerous areas for improvement.

The detailed results are visualized in a radar chart, with dimensions related to Potential for Leadership shown in all caps. This chart compares an individual’s scores (represented by a blue line) to the population average (represented by an orange line). For leaders scoring below the average on multiple dimensions, this chart provides a clear view of specific areas to focus on for improvement and discussed during the debriefing session.

Beyond Individual Gaps: Team and Organizational Gaps

Leadership gaps extend beyond the individual. Team perception gaps reveal differences in how a leader views their leadership compared to how their team and peers perceive it. At the organizational level, gaps highlight differences between a leader’s self-assessment and the perceptions of leaders at similar levels (e.g., C-level, Vice Presidents, etc.).

Teams and organizations that utilize this type of analysis often find the insights invaluable. Future articles will dive deeper into how team and organizational gaps affect leadership effectiveness and overall culture.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to identify your individual, team or organization leadership gaps, please message me through LinkedIn or visit our website at EliteLeadershipAcademy.com .

“With Leadership, Anything is Possible!”?

{Professor Bryan Bennett is the Founder and Chief Leadership Innovation Officer of the?Elite Leadership Academy ?in San Diego, California. He has been recognized as one of the top?African American Leaders in Healthcare?by Becker’s Hospital Review three years in a row. He is a faculty member at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland Global Campus. He teaches, researches and develops courses in leadership, analytics, visualizations and marketing. His Elite Leadership Process? is the foundation for the new leader training program for the military. Read more about his personalized, adaptable and measurable approach to leadership improvement, in his book, “The Path to Elite Level Leadership ” or enroll in one of their online Elite Leadership Training Programs at?EliteLeadershipAcademy.com/courses .}

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