by Sarah Jones – Executive & Team Coach, Former Board-Level Leader
What if your most capable technical experts are the ones holding back your leadership pipeline. Not because they’re underqualified, but because they’ve never been shown how to lead?
It’s a quiet but costly issue in many organisations across Ireland and beyond: the very people promoted for their deep expertise in for example science, engineering, tech, or operations often struggle when asked to step into strategic, team, or visionary leadership. Having worked with many STEM organisations, HR teams may find themselves firefighting cultural or performance issues that stem not from intent or effort, but from a fundamental gap between functional excellence and strategic leadership capability.
In this article, I want to share what I’ve observed through hundreds of hours coaching senior leaders across pharma, biotech, healthcare and tech. My goal is to offer insight and practical actions HR professionals can use to bridge this gap and create stronger, more agile leadership pipelines.
Why Promoting Based on Expertise Often Backfires
Many organisations still default to promoting high performers based on technical achievement or years of service. On paper, it makes sense: reward your top talent, retain institutional knowledge, and keep people progressing. But in practice, this approach often places individuals into leadership roles without ever assessing or developing their l readiness to lead people, drive change, or think beyond their function.
What I’ve often noticed is that they may:
- Avoid decision-making outside their expertise.
- Struggle with visibility, influence, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Lead by doing, not delegating, creating bottlenecks and burnout.
- Rely on task management over strategic communication and alignment.
According to a study by DDI (Global Leadership Forecast 2023), only 40% of leaders feel their organisation is effective at developing “next generation” leaders. Technical competence alone is no longer a reliable predictor of leadership success, yet it’s sometimes still the default promotion metric in many industries.
The Leadership Limbo: When Experts Stay in Their Lane
A common pattern I see in coaching is the “leadership limbo” zone. These are senior individual contributors, project leads, or functional heads who are technically senior but haven’t yet made the mindset leap from problem-solver to decision-maker.
In this limbo, leaders often:
- Stay hyper-focused on operational detail, not looking at the bigger picture.
- Default to what’s safe or proven, rather than taking strategic risks.
- Struggle to influence upwards or across departments.
- Feel uncertain or overwhelmed but avoid asking for help.
Case Study
One leader I coached, a highly respected global clinical operations director in a biopharma company, had led dozens of successful trials, but found herself excluded from strategic discussions. Despite her seniority, her peers viewed her as an implementer, not a visionary. Through coaching, we identified that she rarely voiced strategic opinions, often deferred to others in cross-functional settings, and had unknowingly reinforced her “functional expert” identity. Once she learned to communicate her insights with clarity and assertiveness, she was invited onto the global portfolio strategy committee and later promoted into a leadership role with real enterprise influence.
From Operational Excellence to Strategic Readiness
So how do we change this?
The first step is recognising that technical competence and leadership capability are two different things. One does not automatically lead to the other. We must champion the idea that leadership is a skill to be developed – proactively, intentionally, and early.
This means:
- Identifying emerging leaders not just by delivery, but by potential to influence
- Including behavioural and relational indicators in promotion criteria
- Giving feedback on visibility, collaboration, and influence—not just KPIs
Supporting Data: A 2022 McKinsey report found that companies whose leadership development is aligned with long-term strategy are 3.5x more likely to outperform peers financially. Yet many L&D investments still focus on operational performance rather than future readiness.
Building Leadership Agility, Presence and Decision-Making
Leadership agility isn’t about being good at everything. It’s about knowing when to flex: when to step in, when to delegate, when to hold a firm line, and when to listen. These skills don’t come from theory; they come from deliberate practice.
Here’s where development support can help:
- Helping leaders understand their own behavioural defaults under pressure (e.g., using DISC or similar tools)
- Role-playing real scenarios they’re avoiding, like influencing senior stakeholders or handling conflict.
- Building the muscle of strategic thinking: what do we not need to focus on today?
- Improving communication presence: how to hold the room, even when you’re unsure.
The leaders I coach are not trying to be perfect; they’re trying to be effective. And that shift alone unlocks huge progress.
The Role of HR in Shaping the Next Generation of Leaders
HR plays a pivotal role in whether this shift becomes possible. Here’s what forward-thinking HR teams I work with, are doing to support functional experts in making the leap:
- Invest Early in Leadership Exposure
Don’t wait until someone is managing 10 people to introduce them to leadership thinking. Build mentoring, cross-functional projects, and shadowing opportunities into early career paths. - Coach, Don’t Just Train
While leadership workshops are useful, real behaviour change often requires 1:1 or small group coaching. This provides a safe space to unpick habits, explore identity shifts, and practise with feedback. And with a willing leader, it doesn’t take long. - Align L&D with Strategic Priorities
Design leadership development around your business goals. If agility, influence and collaboration are what’s needed to grow, make those the pillars of your programmes. - Tackle Visibility and Confidence Gaps
Particularly for women and underrepresented groups, visibility and self-advocacy are often the biggest barriers. Include modules or coaching on speaking up, navigating politics, and building influence, without compromising authenticity. - Get Buy-In from the Top
Middle managers will rarely prioritise development unless senior leadership actively supports it. HR must partner with execs to role model and reward the behaviours they want to see.
In Summary
Your leadership pipeline might not be broken. It might just be misaligned.
If your senior experts are feeling stuck, resistant to change, or struggling to lead cross-functionally, the answer isn’t always more process. It’s support. Permission to lead differently.
As an HR professional, you are uniquely placed to spot these patterns and intervene early. With the right frameworks and support, your best technical talent can become your boldest, most strategic leaders.
Let’s reframe that expertise equals leadership and start building the systems that help leaders truly lead.
About the author
Sarah Jones is a former board-level leader, Sarah support’s senior leaders and teams to lead with confidence, influence and clarity, especially in complex, fast-paced environments.
Partnering with HR and L&D, designing coaching solutions that unlock performance, agility and strategic impact. With deep insight into STEM, she brings practical, grounded leadership development. Sarah’s approach blends boldness and empathy, helping individuals and organisations grow and achieve results with purpose and precision.
