Why Most Leadership Training Doesn’t Translate to the Floor w/ Craig Coyle
About this episode
Craig Coyle discusses the gap between leadership training and real-world application in organizations.
Most companies say they’re developing leaders. But when you look at what actually happens on the floor, or inside a new manager’s first real team, it doesn’t line up. Craig Coyle spent years as an Army aviator and now works with frontline leaders in manufacturing and defense environments. What he saw in both worlds is the same gap, people are promoted into leadership, then left to figure it out in real time, without the structure they were used to as operators. In aviation, that doesn’t happen. You don’t just become a pilot in command and get told to figure it out. There’s progression, there’s repetition, there’s instructor pilots inside the mission, not outside of it. That contrast is what drives this conversation. We talk through what changes when leadership is treated like a skill that needs structured training instead of something people just “grow into.” And why most development programs fall short, not because the content is wrong, but because it’s removed from the environment where the work actually happens. There’s also a deeper problem underneath it all, most organizations don’t have a clear definition of what “good” looks like for a manager. So people default to…
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