Is it a development problem, or something else?

They do not yet know how to do the leadership part of the job. This is the genuine development case, and it is much more common than businesses admit, because it usually follows a promotion. Somebody was brilliant on the floor, got the keys, and was never taught the four or five things that change when your output stops being your own. What it looks like: they avoid difficult conversations. They do the work themselves rather than delegating, and they are exhausted. They can read the P&L but cannot tell you which lever they would pull on a slow Tuesday. Their team like them but do not quite follow them. What it needs: structured development, over enough time to become behaviour rather than intention, ideally with peers at the same stage. What it does not need: a performance improvement plan. Putting a capability gap on a PIP is one of the fastest ways I know to lose a good person and gain a tribunal risk.

They do not actually know what good looks like. This one is on the business, and it is the most common thing I find when I go into a struggling site. What it looks like: they are working hard, often very hard, on the wrong things. Their version of the priorities and their line manager's version are different. When you ask what success looks like this quarter, you get a vague answer, and when you ask their manager the same question you get a different vague answer. What it needs: twenty minutes and some honesty. Write down the five things that matter, in order, and agree them out loud. What it does not need: a training budget. If you send someone on a course to solve a clarity problem, they come back with new vocabulary and the same confusion.

They know what to do and they have no room to do it. What it looks like: chronically short staffed. Covering shifts four days a week. Two sites when they were hired for one. Doing the assistant manager's job because the assistant manager left in March and nobody replaced them. What it needs: a resourcing decision, and probably an uncomfortable one. What it does not need: anything I sell. Putting a manager who is working seventy hours on a development programme is not investment, it is another thing on the pile, and they will rightly resent it. Be honest about this one. It is the diagnosis businesses least like reaching, because the fix costs money rather than costing training budget.

They are in the wrong role, or the wrong business. What it looks like: nothing lands. Support has been given, clarity has been given, resource has been given, and it still is not moving. Often you can see it in them before you can see it in the numbers, because they are not enjoying a single day of it. What it needs: a straight conversation, handled with respect. Sometimes that means a different role. Sometimes it means parting company well. What it does not need: another six months of hoping. Everybody knows. The team know, their manager knows, and worst of all they know, and dragging it out damages them more than it damages you. I do not enjoy writing that one, but leaving somebody in a role they cannot do is not kindness. It is avoidance dressed up as patience.

Because you can spend the same money four different ways and only one of them works. Train a capability gap and you get a stronger manager. Train a clarity problem and you have paid to delay a conversation. Train a capacity problem and you have added to someone's workload. Train a fit problem and you have spent money teaching somebody to be unhappy more articulately. Same invoice. Four completely different outcomes. This is also why I am careful about what I take on. The quickest way to be useless to a client is to sell them a programme for a problem the programme cannot touch.

You can usually get to the answer in one conversation, if you ask properly. Ask the manager what they would do differently if they had a completely free hand. A capability issue produces a vague answer. A clarity issue produces a confident answer that is different from yours. A capacity issue produces an instant answer about staffing. A fit issue produces a long pause. Ask what the hardest part of the job is. Then listen for whether they are describing a skill, a system, a resource or a feeling. Ask their line manager what good would look like in six months. If their manager cannot answer it crisply, you have found your problem and it is not the manager. Ask yourself when this person last had anything invested in them. If the answer is never, you do not have a performance problem yet. You have an untested person, and that is a very different starting point.

The Leadership Sense Check exists because of this article, more or less. It is twenty minutes, it costs nothing and there is no pitch at the end of it. We work through where your managers actually sit, what you are dealing with in each case and what would move the needle. If the answer is that you do not need a programme, I will tell you that, and you will have had a useful conversation for free. If the answer is that you have a group of capable managers who have never been developed properly, then we should talk about what ninety days could do for them. But get the diagnosis right first. Everything else is guesswork with an invoice attached. What's better than making someone smile?