Morgan McCall's research on executive derailment identified a pattern that has held across decades of replication: the behaviors that get leaders promoted, technical expertise, decisive action, competitive drive, high personal standards, frequently become the behaviors that limit them at higher levels. The leader who succeeded through knowing more than anyone else in the room struggles in a role where knowing everything is impossible. The leader who succeeded through decisive action struggles with the ambiguity that senior leadership requires. The leader whose high personal standards drove excellent individual performance holds direct reports to standards that produce fear rather than development.
This is not a failure of character. It is a failure of adaptation, the application of tools that worked in one context to a context where they don't fit.
The most common derailment patterns
McCall and colleagues identified several consistent patterns. Problems with interpersonal relationships, especially difficulty with people who were perceived as difficult, was among the most common. This often shows up as conflict avoidance with some people and conflict escalation with others, producing unpredictable relationship quality.
Difficulty making the transition from operational to strategic thinking is another. Leaders who excelled at executing are required, in senior roles, to set direction under conditions of uncertainty. The skills are different, and many leaders spend years in senior roles doing operational work that belongs at lower levels.
Inability to develop others, holding on to tasks, micromanaging, failing to provide the developmental challenges and feedback that grow the next layer of talent, limits organizational capacity and is among the most common limiting factors in leaders who plateau.
