C-suite overrates manager readiness as expert instincts outlive the promotion
Senior executives judge their managers as more ready than the managers judge themselves. In a Careerminds study, sixty-six percent of C-suite respondents called managers very ready, against forty-two percent of respondents closer to the front line. An executive coach writing in Entrepreneur links the gap to leaders promoted for expertise. The coach cites McKinsey research finding that one-third to one-half of new CEOs are considered failing within eighteen months.
Kristin Whitley-Smith, president of Mooring USA, describes the trap from the inside. As chief financial officer, her value lay in having the number and the recommendation ready before anyone asked. As president, she found her team still waiting for her to supply the answer. Those answers were still coming from the old finance seat, and each one pushed aside the judgment of the people she now relied on.
Source: Entrepreneur · October 20, 2026