Podcast Summary: Bred To Lead with Dr. Jake Tayler Jacobs

Episode 32: Why The Wrong Leaders Get Promoted
Host: Dr. Jake Tayler Jacobs (Presented by SIPS Healthcare Solutions)
Date: November 25, 2025

Main Theme

This episode dives into the ongoing crisis of leadership development in healthcare (and other industries), exploring why organizations keep promoting the wrong individuals to leadership positions. Dr. Jake Tayler Jacobs argues that leadership is not an innate trait but a cultivated skill—leaders aren’t “born,” they’re “bred” through experience, intentional development, and resilience. The conversation zeroes in on the “clinical excellence trap,” common promotion pitfalls, and provides a blueprint for building a robust pipeline of intentional, skilled leaders rather than relying on chance or technical prowess.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Leadership Famine and its Root Causes

• Promotion Missteps:

  • Organizations promote top performers in their technical roles (the best clinician, nurse, technician, etc.) into management.
  • Clinical or technical excellence ≠ leadership capability.
  • “We take people who are exceptional at one thing and put them in charge of something completely different. And then we wonder why our leadership pipeline is broken.” (Dr. Jacobs, 01:00)

• The Clinical Excellence Trap:

  • The assumption is: “Because you are an amazing nurse…you should be a CNO…That’s not necessarily true.” (11:15)
  • No consideration for temperament, desire to lead, or relevant leadership skill sets.
  • Leadership requires more than mastery of individual tasks; it demands people management, emotional intelligence, and systems thinking.

2. “Leeway” and Access in Leadership

• Definition and Importance:
  • “Leeway is having the autonomy, freedom or authority to create change or influence change within an organization.” (03:55)
  • Position/title does not automatically grant true leeway—trust and demonstration of organizational loyalty are key.
  • Leaders must earn trust to gain the freedom to effect real change.

3. Promoting Based on Proximity and Tenure—Not Capability

• Promotions often result from who’s been around the longest, who’s in the right place at the right time, or who has the closest relationship to an outgoing leader.
• “You get the pity promotion…let me give you a chance.” (08:15)
• Peer recommendations and years of service are unreliable indicators of leadership potential.

4. What’s Missing in the Current Promotion Process

• Credentials > Capability:
  • Years of experience, degrees, and past performance are overemphasized.
  • Critical leadership skills (emotional intelligence, systems thinking, conflict resolution) aren’t evaluated.
  • "They were hiring based on credentials and hoping for capability. Oh, hello, somebody.” (21:05)
• Sink or Swim:
  • New managers/“leaders” receive little to no real training or support.
  • Organizations expect osmosis learning through shadowing but don’t set clear frameworks or feedback loops.
• Systemic Problems:
  • Blurred lines between management and leadership.
  • Promotion as the only pathway to higher compensation.
  • No common standards, language, or systems that define and sustain good leadership.

5. The True Ingredients of Leadership

Dr. Jacobs identifies five critical skills/requirements for leadership success:

A. Systems Thinking

• Ability to see patterns, understand downstream impacts, and think beyond the silo of one’s specialty.
• “Leaders have to see patterns, not just problems.” (45:10)

B. Emotional Intelligence

• Reading people, managing conflict, communicating with empathy.
• Clinical environments often reward efficiency over emotional intelligence—leadership requires the opposite.
• “Emotional intelligence causes for you to move your emotions to the side so that you can...break down the emotions you’re dealing with.” (48:30)

C. Change Management

• Leading through transformation, not just stability.
• Bringing people along who may be resistant; gradual, not instant, culture shifts.
• "You cannot change something that's been there 20, 30 years in one to two months." (51:25)

D. Development Mindset

• Leadership isn’t about being the star; it’s about making others better.
• Building “bench strength,” developing talent three layers deep, and viewing leadership as a multiplier.
• “Most new leaders have spent their careers being the star, but leadership is about being in the business of making stars.” (57:55)

E. Strategic Foresight

• Thinking about preventive structures and anticipating future crises.
• Frameworks and methodology are essential; strategic thinking is a skill, not a default.
• "Your best leaders are the ones that challenge you the most because those are the ones that make the system better." (1:03:20)

6. Actionable Solutions for Building Better Leaders

Separate Career Tracks

• Don’t force technical experts into leadership to advance.
• Create a clinical AND a leadership pathway, with fair compensation and development routes.
• “Stop forcing great clinicians into management roles that they don’t want just so they can make more money.” (1:10:00)

Assess for Capabilities, Not Just Credentials

• Use behavioral interviews, situational tests, and 360-degree feedback.
• Observe leadership skills in action, not just on paper.
• “Look at how they think, not just what they’ve done.” (1:13:30)

Build Development On-Ramps

• Implement apprenticeships, mentorships, leadership rotations—let potential leaders “try before they buy.”
• “Go ahead and put them in your minor leagues — like baseball.” (1:16:30)

Invest in Sustained, Real Training

• Move past one-off seminars; focus on long-term, cohort-based development and executive coaching.
• Make leadership development a competitive advantage.

Hold Leaders Accountable for Developing Leaders

• Make talent development and succession planning a performance metric for current leaders.
• “If you’re not building leaders, you’re not leading, you’re just managing.” (1:20:40)

7. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Leadership Selection:
  • “Hiring based on credentials and hoping for capability…That’s not leadership development.” (21:05)
• On Systems Thinking:
  • “Leaders have to see patterns, not just problems. They have to think in systems, not silos.” (45:12)
• On Emotional Intelligence:
  • “Clinical training doesn’t teach this. Frankly, clinical environments often punish it.” (47:55)
• On the Star-to-Builder Transition:
  • “You can’t want to be the star and make a star. You have to be willing to curate and create stars if you truly want an organization of stars.” (1:01:10)
• On Leadership Accountability:
  • “Evaluate leaders on how many people they develop, not just how many problems they solve.” (1:21:20)
• On the Core Problem:
  • “The leadership famine isn’t a talent problem. It’s a design problem.” (1:23:50)
• On Leadership as Inclusive and Earned:
  • “Leadership isn’t about who you are—it’s about who you’re becoming.” (Summary of core theme)

Time-stamped Breakdown of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Title | Key Content | |------------|-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00-03:30| Episode Opening & Theme | “Why are we still getting leadership wrong? We’re promoting the wrong people.” | | 03:31-07:30| Leeway & The Meaning of “Bridge Builder” | “Position itself does not create leeway…as a bridge builder…the objective is collaboration…” | | 07:31-14:00| The Clinical Excellence Trap | Complete breakdown of why technical expertise ≠ leadership potential. | | 14:01-21:00| Promotion Criteria: Proximity & Credentials | “Pity promotion,” lack of emotional intelligence and change management assessment. | | 21:01-29:00| Organizational Mistakes & Leadership Development | Reality vs. ideal; “hiring based on credentials and hoping for capability.” | | 29:01-41:00| Common Organizational Failures in Training/Onboarding | Timeframes for real comfort, efficiency, and mastery in new leadership roles. | | 41:01-45:00| The Need for a Common Leadership Language/Framework | “No common language or framework…a smorgasbord of all different types of philosophies.” | | 45:01-57:00| Five Critical Skills for Effective Leadership | Systems thinking, emotional intelligence, change management, development mindset, strategic foresight| | 57:01-01:07:00| The Development Cycle & Bench Strength | The importance of “three generations down” in talent development; learning from Xerox’s approach. | | 01:07:01–01:23:00 | Solutions and Call to Action | Five steps to fix the leadership pipeline; performance metrics for developing leaders. | | 01:23:01-END| Closing Thoughts & Challenge | “The leadership famine ends when we stop accidentally finding leaders and start intentionally building them.”|

Final Takeaways & Action Steps

• For leaders: Audit the last five promotions: Were they chosen for leadership capacity or technical skill?
• For aspiring leaders: Ask if you truly desire to lead and develop others, or just want the title and pay.
• For HR and executives: Evaluate the current leadership pipeline and criteria—how many leaders were selected for their leadership ability, not just clinical competence?
• Overarching Message: Leadership development should be intentional, systematic, and inclusive—designed to breed leaders fit for the complexity and demands of today’s healthcare (and broader) environment.

Notable Quotes (with Speaker & Timestamps)

• "Clinical excellence does not equal leadership capacity. Management skill does not equal strategic vision." (Dr. Jacobs, 01:45)
• “Position itself does not create leeway…Leeway is that freedom range that you get to levy change and create opportunities.” (Dr. Jacobs, 03:56)
• “We’re selecting for visibility and credibility, not for actual leadership capacity.” (Dr. Jacobs, 22:30)
• "It takes three months for someone that is even capable to get comfortable in a new environment…a year to become efficient…18 months to 24 months to become proficient." (Dr. Jacobs, 37:00)
• “The highest level of leadership is learning how to develop other leaders. That’s the key.” (Dr. Jacobs, 1:21:15)
• “The leadership famine isn’t a talent problem. It’s a design problem.” (Dr. Jacobs, 1:23:50)

Overall Tone:
Direct, urgent, and practical, with a relentless focus on solutions, accountability, and intentional development. Dr. Jacobs uses relatable analogies (sports, “bench strength,” “pity promotion”) and challenges listeners to reject outdated models in favor of purposeful, inclusive leadership systems.

For More:
Follow up at breadtolead.com, and check out further resources and masterclasses as referenced in the episode.