2025 Top 6 Leadership Issues | Two: The Talent Shortage

25/02/2025

Why Leaders Are Losing Their Best People (And How to Stop It)

The Problem: A Leadership Crisis No One’s Talking About

Hiring is a nightmare. Keeping great employees is even worse. Across the UK, companies are throwing pay rises, hybrid perks, and mental health apps at people in a desperate attempt to stop the great resignation, quiet quitting, and outright ghosting of once-loyal staff.

And yet, people keep leaving.

💡 82% of UK businesses are struggling to retain key employees (CIPD, 2023).
💡 69% of employees say they would be more likely to stay in a company if they felt their manager was invested in their career development (LinkedIn, 2023).

So, what’s the real issue here? It’s not just pay. It’s leadership. Or more accurately—the lack of leadership development.

And at the heart of this problem, we have two major leadership gaps that are breaking organisations:

1️⃣ Accidental Leaders – The managers who never asked to lead, never got trained, and are now (in many cases) winging it with no support.
2️⃣ High-Potential Leaders – The rising stars who could be the future of your organisation… if only someone recognised them and developed them properly.

Let’s break this down.

The Accidental Leadership Epidemic

(AKA: Why No One Knows What They’re Doing)

The UK is full of Accidental Leaders—people who were brilliant at their job, got promoted into a management role, and then… got zero training on how to lead.

🔹 The top salesperson becomes the Sales Manager.
🔹 The best engineer gets promoted to Lead Engineer.
🔹 The strongest performer in any team suddenly finds themselves in charge—often with no idea how to handle people, drive engagement, or even hold a difficult conversation.

📊 70% of managers in the UK are ‘accidental leaders’ – CMI (Chartered Management Institute, 2023)
📊 Only 30% of UK managers have received formal leadership training – People Management, 2023

This is a disaster. Imagine throwing someone into an F1 car with no driving lessons and expecting them to win the race. That’s what we do with managers every single day.

What happens? Stress. Burnout. Resignations. Toxic cultures. Good employees quitting because their boss is terrible (through no fault of their own).

👉 The fix? Train your accidental leaders. Leadership isn’t natural instinct—it’s a learnable skill. Companies that invest in leadership training see 23% higher employee engagement and 30% lower turnover (Gallup, 2022).

The High-Potential Leadership Gap

(AKA: Who’s Actually Taking Over When Your Senior Leaders Leave?)

Every organisation has future leaders hiding in plain sight—but most of them never get recognised, nurtured, or fast-tracked.

📊 Only 14% of companies believe they have a strong pipeline of emerging leaders (DDI, 2023).
📊 74% of UK employees believe their company is “failing to identify and develop leadership talent” (HR Review, 2023).

The result? When senior leaders leave, companies are left scrambling for external hires because they’ve done nothing to prepare internal talent to step up.

🔹 How do you spot a high-potential leader?

• They solve problems instead of just reporting them.
• They’re curious—always asking “why do we do it this way?”
• They’re influencers (not in the Instagram way)—others naturally listen to them.
• They take ownership and get things done.

But spotting them isn’t enough. You have to develop them. If your best future leaders are stuck in the same job with no career path, they’ll leave. And when they do? You’ve just lost your best investment in the company’s future.

👉 The fix? Create a structured High-Potential Leadership Development Plan.

💡 Companies that invest in high-potential leaders are 4.2x more likely to outperform competitors (Harvard Business Review, 2023).

The Lead Happy Approach: Fixing the Leadership Gaps

At Lead Happy, we work with companies to stop the leadership talent drain by doing three things:

✅ We train the Accidental Leaders – Giving them real leadership skills so they stop winging it and start thriving.
✅ We fast-track the High-Potential Leaders – Identifying rising stars and equipping them with next-level leadership skills.
✅ We create a leadership pipeline that actually works – Ensuring organisations don’t lose their best people due to lack of growth.

If you’re serious about retaining talent and growing future leaders, you need more than perks and pay rises. You need to invest in leadership.

Top 5 Ways to Fix Your Leadership Gaps and Retain Talent

1️⃣ Train Your Managers (Properly, This Time)

Don’t just assume people will “pick it up as they go.” If they’ve never had real leadership training, get them some.

🔹 Try this: Give all first-time managers a structured 6-month leadership programme (not just a single workshop).

2️⃣ Identify & Develop High-Potential Leaders Early

Your future leadership team is already working for you—but are you developing them?

🔹 Try this: Start a High-Potential Leadership Programme—give rising stars mentoring, exposure, and leadership challenges.

3️⃣ Stop Promoting People Just Because They’re Good at Their Job

The best performer isn’t always the best leader. Make leadership skills a requirement for promotion, not an afterthought.

🔹 Try this: Create a ‘leadership readiness’ track—where potential managers must demonstrate people skills, coaching ability, and strategic thinking before being promoted.

4️⃣ Give People a Clear Growth Path

If your best people don’t see a future in your organisation, they’ll find one somewhere else.

🔹 Try this: Map out clear career pathways—show employees what development looks like at every level, from junior roles to senior leadership.

5️⃣ Invest in Leadership Coaching & Development

Leadership isn’t just about skills—it’s about mindset, confidence, and impact. Your best people won’t stay engaged if they’re just left to figure it out alone.

🔹 Try this: Offer regular leadership coaching—it’s one of the best ways to retain and develop talent.

Final Thoughts: Leadership is the Answer to the Retention Crisis

At Lead Happy, we believe that great leadership is the secret to keeping great people. If you’re serious about solving the talent shortage, the best place to start is inside your own organisation.

Invest in leadership. Develop your managers. Identify and nurture future leaders.

Because if you don’t? Someone else will.

🔹 Want to build a stronger leadership pipeline? Let’s talk.