Develop Leaders on Purpose: How to Build Velocity Without Burning Out Your Team

Growing fast is exciting until it starts to break your people. The work gets done, but the cost shows up in duplicated effort, stalled decisions, and teams that feel overwhelmed. The answer is not more hustle. The answer is leadership that treats people development as core infrastructure.

This post pulls out the biggest lessons from my conversation with leadership advisor Jamey Gadoury, Founder of Outsider Consulting. We covered why new leaders struggle, how to delegate without losing quality, and what to fix first if you want speed that lasts. The thread through it all is simple: what leaders pay attention to becomes the culture. If leaders invest in developing people, the business compounds. If they do not, they leave money on the table.

Promotion without preparation is not a growth strategy

High performers often get promoted because they are excellent at the work. Sales stars become sales leaders. Top ICs become managers. Skill at the craft and skill at leading the craft are not the same thing.

Why this keeps happening:

• Organizations underinvest in leadership development. Training is treated like a luxury, not a lever.

• We assume excellence will replicate itself without support. It will not.

What to do instead:

• Create an advancement plan before the promotion. Clarify responsibilities, success metrics, and the first 90 days of support.

• Pair every new leader with a coach or internal mentor. One standing conversation a week is enough to reduce the learning curve.

• Teach the shift from “I do the work” to “I create the conditions for great work.”

Delegation is an energy decision

New managers resist delegation because letting go feels risky. The truth is more practical. You have limited energy. You can either spend it doing the task, or you can spend it building capacity so the task gets done without you.

A simple way to train yourself to let go:

• Hands off keys. Give the work, set the outcome, agree on checkpoints, and do not touch the keyboard. Coach, do not correct.

• Expect the first pass to be 80 percent. Use specific, future-oriented feedback to close the gap.

• Track the curve. First time might take five revisions, then three, then one. The investment pays back fast when you stick to it.

  
  

Helpful prompts for feedback:

• What worked and why

• What is missing and how to close it

• What you would keep, change, and try next time

Stop confusing speed with progress

Speed without structure creates the illusion of momentum. People stay late, Slack is busy, and leaders feel involved. You will still miss your goals if ownership is unclear and processes are not aligned.

Give your team the minimum structure required for velocity:

• Define “done” before you start. Outcomes, boundaries, owners, deadlines.

• Map the handoffs. Human to human and system to system.

• Close the loop. One paragraph after-action notes for every major sprint so learning compounds.

  
  

Remember the Scale Without Chaos lens:

• People create momentum

• Processes create repeatability

• Systems create scalability

  
  

Use all three to solve the problem, not just one.

Outdated ideas that quietly slow you down

1) “HR owns development.”HR can facilitate. Executives must own it. People pay attention to what the top team pays attention to. If the CEO, CRO, or CMO is not visibly invested in developing leaders, no program will save you.

2) “What if we develop them and they leave.” Flip it. What if you do not develop them and they stay. You cannot control churn. You can control whether time in your company makes people better. That reputation attracts better candidates and raises engagement right now.

Make development practical and visible

You do not need a big budget to start. You need consistency.

Quick wins you can implement this month:

• Create space. Thirty minutes biweekly for senior leaders to meet with up-and-coming managers and talk about leadership, not performance. One question to open every session: where are you stuck as a leader right now.

• Offer opt-in tracks. A self-awareness assessment, a peer circle, or a coaching block. Let the eager go first. Early wins build pull.

• Pin the tail. Assign clear ownership for developing leaders two levels down. Example: a VP is responsible for the development of managers, not only their direct directors. Keep performance reviews separate so people can be candid about gaps without worrying about ratings.

  
  

Operational habits that sustain it:

• Weekly: one thing to stop, one to start, one to strengthen

• Monthly: one process to simplify and one metric to improve

• Quarterly: one role you must hire or uplevel to hit the next target

Build a culture where learning outruns mistakes

Fast teams will make mistakes. The edge dulls when people feel punished for them. Protect the edge by normalizing short, useful debriefs and by celebrating clean kills when a test proves a hypothesis wrong.

A 30-minute rhythm that works:

• What worked

• What did not

• What we change next time

• Who owns the change

Keep it factual, brief, and forward-looking. No blame, just better.

Leaders set the weather

If you want a company that learns, grows, and moves quickly, start at the top. Leaders who develop themselves, develop their direct reports, and stay curious create teams that do the same. Leaders who only chase the fire of the day get more fires.

Decide what you want your team to pay attention to, then model it. Create space for development, delegate like it is an energy strategy, and run the business through people, processes, and systems. That is how you increase speed without breaking the team.

Want to go deeper on these ideas? We explore all of this in my podcast conversation with leadership advisor Jamey Gadoury, including promotion pitfalls, real delegation habits, and how to make development part of your operating system.

Want to learn more?

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Scale Without Chaos wherever you get your podcasts.💬 Follow along on LinkedIn or Instagram for frameworks and practical examples.