There is a brutal truth many high-performing managers eventually face: the skills that earned the promotion to manager are not the same skills that will carry them into the VP or C‑suite. Research on leadership gaps, such as Harvard’s overview of leadership gaps that hold people back, repeatedly shows that the biggest weaknesses sit in high-stakes areas like managing change, strategic perspective and developing others—precisely the capabilities executive roles demand most. Studies on executive transitions, including McKinsey’s work on successfully transitioning to new leadership roles, add to the warning, finding that many new executives are judged as disappointments within the first years because they never truly make the shift from functional manager to enterprise leader.
A modern leadership training program that actually closes this gap has to do more than polish presentation skills or repackage standard models. It needs to rewire how leaders think about scope, time horizons, risk, influence and people—especially for those in finance and other high-pressure functions where the leap to VP can be unforgiving.
Why strong managers stall before VP
High-performing managers are often promoted because they deliver results reliably, know their function deeply and keep projects under control. Their world is dominated by deadlines, resource allocation and making sure the current operating machine runs smoothly, which encourages short-term focus and tight control.
That very success can plant the seeds of the future skills gap. Analyses of the manager skills gap and similar research show that many managers become expert problem-solvers for their own teams but invest little in cross-functional relationships, strategic thinking or developing successors. Others are highly hands-on, stepping in to “fix” issues themselves instead of learning to influence through others, which works at team level but breaks down badly when the span of control explodes at VP level.
What changes when you become a VP
The jump from manager to VP is not a bigger version of the same job; it is a shift in identity, scope and risk tolerance. Executive recruiters and leadership institutes consistently highlight four key shifts: enterprise thinking over functional optimisation, longer time horizons, decisions under ambiguity and influence without formal authority.
Executive skills lists for 2025, like Eagles Flight’s executive skills and competencies, put capabilities such as strategic vision, emotional intelligence, adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, financial acumen and change leadership at the top of the pile. Korn Ferry’s article on moving from great manager to great executive adds the need for strategic communication, active listening and cross-functional influence to navigate conflict and align diverse stakeholders. In other words, what separates a great VP from a great manager is less about knowing more and more about a function, and more about orchestrating across functions in the face of uncertainty.
The leadership skills gap in today’s organisations
Multiple studies now talk openly about a “leadership gap”—the difference between the skills organisations say they need and the skills their current leaders actually have. The Center for Creative Leadership’s view on what leaders still need points to weak capability in areas like managing change, inspiring commitment, building collaborative relationships, having a strategic perspective and self-awareness, all of which are critical for senior roles.
At the same time, surveys such as PERSOL’s perspective on manager-to-leader transitions report that organisations struggle to build a deep bench of leaders ready for executive responsibility, particularly in high-growth regions and sectors where complexity is rising quickly. This is acute in finance and in global hubs such as the UAE and GCC, where leaders must juggle regulatory scrutiny, investor expectations and aggressive growth agendas with the realities of diverse, fast-moving teams.
Why many leadership training programs miss this leap
Most companies are not ignoring leadership. They are running plenty of courses and workshops. The problem is that much of this activity is not designed to close the specific gap between strong manager and effective VP.
Classic analyses like McKinsey’s Why leadership-development programs fail and MIT Sloan’s Leadership development is failing us show that many initiatives fail because they are disconnected from strategy, focus on classroom content over behavioural change, and ignore the organisational systems that shape how leaders actually behave. Traditional leadership training programs also tend to treat all levels the same, offering similar content to new managers and senior leaders despite the very different challenges they face.
Even when programs are targeted at “high potentials,” they often over-index on generic skills like communication and time management without deeply addressing enterprise thinking, political acumen, strategic trade-offs or the discomfort of leading in ambiguity. The result is a cohort of managers who know the theory of leadership but still approach decisions like local operators, not like future VPs.
What a modern leadership training program must deliver
To truly help leaders cross the chasm from manager to VP, a leadership training program needs to be designed around the real demands of executive life rather than generic ideals. Several components stand out in the research and in practice.
1. From functional excellence to enterprise thinking
Senior search firms and leadership consultancies repeatedly emphasise enterprise thinking as a defining feature of executives. That means understanding how finance, operations, sales, technology and people functions interact, and making decisions with full awareness of those ripple effects.
A robust leadership training program therefore has to immerse participants in cross-functional scenarios, not just case studies within their own department. This might include simulated executive committees, strategy reviews and budget trade-offs where leaders must balance competing priorities rather than optimise their own area.
2. From control to empowerment
Many managers earn promotions by being reliable “fixers” who step in whenever things go wrong. But at VP level, the job is to build a system that works when you are not in the room—through clear direction, accountability, coaching and trust.
Well-designed programs therefore focus heavily on coaching skills, delegation, and building leaders who develop other leaders, not passive followers. Exercises such as real delegation challenges, live coaching practice and feedback-intensive simulations help managers experience the discomfort of letting go and the upside of empowering strong lieutenants.
3. From short-term firefighting to long-term value
Managers typically operate on short to medium-term horizons: this quarter’s numbers, this year’s project milestones, this cycle’s performance ratings. Executives, by contrast, must stay anchored in multi-year value creation, even while the immediate fires are burning.
Advanced leadership development therefore builds skills in strategic vision, scenario planning and risk-taking under uncertainty, as highlighted in lists of key executive skills and competencies and in-demand leadership skills. Participants are exposed to market, technology and regulatory trends and are pushed to translate those into long-term bets, capital allocation choices and organisation design changes, rather than only tactical improvements.
4. From task communication to executive presence
Communication at manager level is often about giving instructions, clarifying tasks and updating stakeholders. At VP level, it becomes about storytelling, framing trade-offs, influencing peers and boards, and holding the room in tough moments.
A modern leadership training program invests time in building executive presence—helping leaders communicate with clarity, authenticity and gravitas in high-stakes settings. This goes beyond presentation skills to include handling challenge from board members, communicating bad news to teams, and bridging between technical detail and strategic narrative, particularly vital for finance leaders.
5. From solo heroics to collaborative leadership
The old image of the heroic, lone problem-solver is increasingly out of step with the collaborative demands of today’s organisations. Executive roles require building coalitions, resolving conflict across silos and leading diverse, global teams.
Programs that close the manager-to-VP gap therefore build skills in collaboration, conflict management, stakeholder mapping and influencing without authority, echoing research on key leadership competencies for future success. Group projects, cross-functional action learning and peer feedback become central vehicles for growth, rather than optional extras.
Why coaching and real work matter more than classrooms
Multiple reviews of executive coaching, including an integrative literature review of executive coaching and more recent meta-analyses, show it has a powerful effect on behaviour, goal attainment and performance when done well. Studies on leadership transitions also emphasise that they are far more successful when new executives receive structured support and development during their first 12–18 months.
This is why high-impact leadership training programs increasingly blend short, targeted learning modules with one-to-one or small-group coaching and live business projects. The classroom provides frameworks and shared language; coaching helps leaders internalise those concepts and apply them to real dilemmas; stretch assignments provide the proving ground where new behaviours become habits.
For ambitious managers in finance, this might look like leading a cross-border project, steering the finance workstream of a major transformation, or presenting directly to the board on strategy and risk—not just attending another generic leadership course.
A practical roadmap for directors, VPs and HR
For directors, VPs and HR leaders who want to design a leadership training program that genuinely prepares people for executive roles, a few practical steps can make a significant difference.
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Define the executive success profile clearly. Use insights from research on executive competencies—such as executive skills lists and future leadership competencies—and from your own strategy to define what “great VP” means in your context.
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Diagnose the real gaps. Combine 360 feedback, performance data and interviews with senior stakeholders to understand where current managers fall short—be it enterprise thinking, political savvy, coaching skills or risk appetite, reflecting advice in pieces like How to close the leadership skills gap with tailored development.
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Design a journey, not a workshop. Build a multi‑month path that blends workshops, real projects, peer learning, mentoring and executive coaching, rather than a one-off offsite, in line with guidance on effective leadership transitions and manager-to-executive development. Ensure each element is explicitly tied to the executive success profile, not just generic leadership themes.
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Anchor everything in real business challenges. Use live issues—M&A, digitalisation, restructuring, ESG commitments, expansion into new markets—as the core curriculum, especially in dynamic regions like the UAE and GCC where finance and strategy are tightly linked. This keeps learning grounded and shows directly how new skills drive value.
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Measure behavioural and business outcomes. Track leading indicators such as cross-functional collaboration, quality of strategic discussions and strength of succession pipelines, alongside traditional metrics like engagement and retention, reflecting best practice on measuring leadership development ROI. Use these data to refine the program and build the case for continued investment.
How Binod’s keynotes and programs help close the gap
For many organisations, the first step is not to redesign everything at once, but to shift how senior stakeholders think about leadership and the skills gap. That is where an external voice with real executive scars and finance credibility can make the difference.
Binod is an ex–Finance Director, Chartered Accountant and CFA charterholder who built and sold a successful training business before focusing on executive coaching and speaking for ambitious professionals. His keynotes and sessions, outlined on his About and Speaker pages, are built around straight talk, practical tools and stories from corporate life, entrepreneurship and extreme adventures—exactly the mix that resonates with analytical leaders who are sceptical of buzzwords.
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Organisations can bring Binod in through his keynote speaking offer at https://binodshankar.com/keynote-speaking/ to challenge their managers and senior leaders on what it really takes to move from strong manager to great VP, and to start a serious conversation about closing the leadership skills gap.
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For companies or individuals who want to go deeper, the next step is a direct conversation about tailored leadership journeys, executive coaching and high-impact programs aligned to finance-heavy, high-growth contexts like Dubai and the wider GCC. You can start that discussion via the Connect page at https://binodshankar.com/connect/.
For directors, VPs and HR leaders who are serious about building a real pipeline of ready-now executives, the question is simple: will the next leadership training program you sponsor teach more of the same, or will it finally be designed around the skills that make the leap to VP possible?