Quick Quack Car Wash

From Learning to Lasting Ownership

I say this to leaders all the time. My job is to make it so that you don’t need me anymore. It usually gets me a confused look, and you’re probably thinking what most people do: That sounds like a terrible career strategy. But I mean it.

If I teach a leader how to coach, delegate, give meaningful feedback or have an effective one-on-one, and two years later my team still has to remind them to do those things, I don’t think we have been successful. The learning may have transferred, but the ownership didn’t.

Moving from Learning to Ownership

I know ownership has transferred when a leader comes back and tells me their team is getting more done, or that people are solving problems without immediately coming to them for the answer. A few years ago, I worked with a leader, let’s call her Amanda, who couldn't get through the day without being pulled into every scheduling conflict and customer complaint.

We spent months on delegation, coaching and time management. The turning point wasn't a training session. It came well after, when she told me she'd taken a few days off, her team hadn't called her once, and when she returned, things were running smoothly. That's the outcome we're actually after.

I think those of us who develop leaders need to pay more attention to that space in the middle. We measure attendance, comprehension and application, then eventually look at engagement, turnover and bench strength. All of that matters. But I also want to know: Who keeps the behavior going?

At first, that may be HR. We teach the skill, give leaders a chance to practice and help them figure out where it fits into the work they already do. We also help their leaders recognize what good looks like and reinforce it. That’s part of our job. But it can’t stay our job forever. If HR is the only group reminding leaders to coach, develop, delegate or give feedback, we have not built capability. We have built dependency.

Making Leadership Development Part of the Job

We’re not asking leaders to do anything extra. Coaching, feedback, one-on-ones and delegation are how leaders get work done through others. When leaders do them well, their people can take on more, solve more problems on their own and contribute at a higher level. When those behaviors aren’t happening consistently, leaders end up carrying too much themselves, and their teams can only go so far.

“If HR is the only group reminding leaders to coach, develop, delegate or give feedback, we have not built capability. We have built dependency.”

That’s also why moments like talent reviews, internal promotion decisions and stretch assignments matter so much. You can tell a leader all day long that developing people is important, but it hits differently when the business needs someone to step up, and the question is, who can take this on? Now development isn’t something HR wants them to do. They can see exactly how it affects their ability to get results.

I got into this work because I believe leaders are the heart of an organization. I want to help them become more effective, and I can’t do that if the systems we build in HR create dependency. At some point, the capabilities we help build should become integrated into how leaders operate so HR can continue helping them grow into what comes next.

Coaching, feedback, delegation and meaningful one-on-ones shouldn’t remain leadership development topics forever. Eventually, they should just be part of the job. Once that happens, we can raise the bar. Then we can spend more time helping leaders build judgment, influence, strategic thinking, cross-functional leadership and the ability to lead through ambiguity and change.

From there, we can give them opportunities to practice those skills through mentoring, stretch assignments and advanced leadership programs that address real business challenges. That progression only works if those foundational behaviors stick.

Building What Comes Next

When I say my job is to make it so you don’t need me anymore, I don’t mean HR disappears. Teaching foundational leadership skills will always be part of the job. What I strive for is a partnership where, over time, we can pass the baton. Leaders integrate those capabilities into how they lead, their leaders reinforce them and HR stays alongside them to support, challenge and help build what comes next.

New leaders will always need a foundation. Existing leaders will always need to grow. The business will change, and new challenges will require new capabilities. I don't want my team to spend forever chasing yesterday's behavior. That's not the type of job security I'm looking for. I want us to help the organization build and prepare for what comes next.

So here’s the question worth asking about your own team: Are you teaching leaders what comes next or still reminding them to do what they have already learned?