Five Reasons Why New Leaders Fail: The First Leadership Trap Seen Through 2026 Data

Promotion is a Job Transition, Not a Reward: Five Failure Factors of New Leaders and Leadership Transitions Organizations Must Prepare For, Based on Latest 2026 Data Becoming a leader has long been a major career goal for office workers. However, a promotion does not necessarily mean an extension of a successful career. Rather, the moment of moving from an individual contributor to a leader is the point when the greatest role change occurs in organizational life. According to an analysis published by McKinsey in 2018, between 27% and 46% of executive-level transitions were evaluated as having failed or produced results falling short of expectations two years later. Chief executive officers are not much different. An analysis of 87,000 CEOs by Korn Ferry showed that about 11% of newly appointed CEOs left the company in their first year, and by the end of their third year, this proportion…