Many businesses begin with passion: “I’ve been doing this for so many years,” a future founder might think, “and I’ve built an extensive portfolio, an impressive encyclopedia of knowledge, a mastery of technical skill, and a vast network of contacts that I should be doing this for myself.”

They soon discover that there’s a lot more to running a business than being great at what you do. Talk to any freelancer and they’ll tell you that they love graphic design, writing, tutoring, web development, or whatever their field is, but communicating with clients, hiring help, keeping records, delegating tasks, managing projects, and resolving disputes makes them want to pull their hair out. Why? Not because they’re just naturally bad at it. It’s because they were so focused on becoming experts in their field that they just never got to develop those skills.

The high-performing employee who wins a promotion is often in a similar position. It was their work ethic or problem-solving ability that got them the promotion to management. They were good at writing code, maybe, or selling software, but just being good at something doesn’t mean you’ll be able to teach it to others, and managing a team requires an entirely different set of skills from being a part of one.

The founder struggling with business administration and the newly promoted manager lost when it comes to leading and teaching are both at a crucial juncture in their careers: they either develop their leadership ability or go back to working for someone else.

Instilling a Growth Mindset in Future Leaders

Some people may seem like “natural leaders.” They are personable, persuasive, and effective at allocating resources. They know how to identify talent, get the best out of people, and resolve conflict with a minimum of friction. These skills, however natural they seem, are not something people are born with. Those “natural leaders” have probably been taking a leadership role since childhood, organizing birthday parties and playground games, and constantly developing those interpersonal skills.

While it seems like a leader is something you just are or are not, someone who hasn’t been developing these skills since childhood can learn leadership skills. Someone with a fixed mindset might not agree with that statement. They might say that you have inborn characteristics that make you a leader, or you learned how to take the lead at a young age, but now you’re too old to figure it out now.

Someone with a growth mindset, on the other hand, knows that it’s never too late to learn something new. It’s important that people promoted to leadership roles understand this. Often, employees are promoted on the strength of their work, but then struggle with the management aspects of their new role. In those cases, they might justify their decisions with the phrase that probably drove you up a wall when your parents said it: “because I said so.” They become dissatisfied with their own jobs and lose confidence in themselves, and the team working under them loses morale and checks out mentally and emotionally—or become another data point in the “people don’t quit jobs; they quit managers” argument.

That same new manager working within an organization that supports a growth mindset won’t find themselves alone, stressed out, and flailing as they try to live up to what they think a leader should be. They will be equipped with the tools they need to thrive in the form of leadership development assessments and coaching.

Leadership Development for Current Leaders

Even those who have been successful leaders for decades still have room to grow. If you’re already someone with great organizational and interpersonal skills, leadership development can help you better understand how those skills work and how much further you can take them. As in any other field, there are always new skills to learn and new ways to use old skills. New research in psychology and neuroscience leads to improved management techniques, and constant social change leads to new dispositions that require different methods of communication.

Reach Your Potential and Grow Your Business

Ultimately, a business is made up of people. For the business to grow to its full potential, its people must first reach theirs. All of us have room to grow; you just have to seize the opportunity to learn. Learn your leadership style, get expert guidance in leadership development, and chart your path to success with one of our career development toolscareer development tools.