People development is a flywheel, not an intervention

Most ‘leaders’ approach development as a set of interventions.

Something goes well: they recognise it. Something goes badly: they address it. A review cycle comes around: they talk about performance. Once, maybe twice a year. When a confronting problem becomes too difficult to ignore: they have a conversation.

This isn’t leadership: it’s management.

It’s taught as ‘leadership’: but it is not. It's the reason most people hate what they perceive people leadership to be. It’s heavy, opaque and easily procrastinated. Ultimately it’s boring, uncomfortable and uninspiring for everyone involved.

(The truth is – this is at the heart of why management or false 'leadership' doesn’t create inspiring environments and outcomes)

If the conversation only happens when something needs recognition, correction or formal review, it carries weight before it even begins: The person knows they are being assessed.

And no-one likes being assessed, so the dynamic sucks from the outset.

No wonder people brace.

Defences kick in.

And no wonder leaders struggle to create the momentum required for real development.

True, transformational people development happens when there is a continuous rhythm of observation and conversation – the leader noticing what is happening, naming it clearly, exploring it with the person, and helping them understand themselves in ways they could not have seen alone. They follow through with ongoing assessment of what changes, what doesn’t change, and what new behaviour or impact emerges.

That is when the flywheel effect kicks in.

At first, these conversations feel unfamiliar because most people are not used to being spoken to about themselves without the conversation carrying some hidden verdict. They aren’t used to being seen when they change and try something different, no matter how subtle. But when observation becomes normal, curiosity replaces threat. The person stops experiencing leadership as something to survive and starts experiencing it as something that helps them see.

Chances are, this is the time they’ll ever actually experience real leadership.

This is where development accelerates in ways that reveal potential that no-one saw coming.

Relationship strengthens because information is no longer saved up … transparency builds trust. The leader becomes more precise because they are observing in real time rather than relying on memory and the chances of agreeing on what happened are far higher than trying to recall the details that happened 3 months ago. The person becomes more open because challenge is no longer unusual, and they know not only how to handle it – but how to grow as a result of it. Standards become clear because they are held in easy real-time conversation rather than dragged out to review time.

One conversation makes the next one easier. Awareness creates more awareness. Trust allows for more truth and the vulnerability of curiousity.

The flywheel starts to turn.

This is the difference between managing performance and leading people. I call it Unmanaged leadership.

Management intervenes when the outcome demands it. It waits until something is good enough, bad enough or formal enough to discuss.

Leadership works earlier. It’s interest is in what sits behind the outcome: confidence, avoidance, ambition, frustration, belief, fear, preference, pattern, potential.

If you only intervene at the level of outcome, you will keep arriving late.

Unmanaged leadership begins in the ongoing conversation. The conversation where someone realises why they held back; the question that helps them name what they have been avoiding. The observation that shows them a strength they had dismissed and the challenge that invites them to lift before underperformance hardens into identity.

Development is infinitely less intimidating when it is constant. Not because the truth is softened, but because the truth is no longer saved for high-value moments. People are not waiting for the meeting where they discover what you really think of them - they are already in the conversation.

This is the flywheel, the place where development gathers ever-increasing speed, ease and compounding impact.

Development happens when leadership becomes the environment someone is growing inside.

Where are you still relying on interventions because the real conversation is not happening? What would change if development became part of the way your people were led in every conversation?

But perhaps the real question is this – who is creating the flywheel for your leadership development? Do you do something differently only when it’s required – or are you constantly evaluating your own leadership?

If you’re brave enough to transform your leadership development from episodic into a flywheel, let me help you. I’ll be the provocateur standing right at the edge of your development, constantly calling you forward until your momentum becomes unstoppable.

It’s only through action that change happens.

Are you ready to take action?