There’s a fundamental flaw written into the design of most organizations today — that every leader should naturally possess the skills to develop others.

We assume that because someone has technical excellence or strategic vision, they’ll also excel at mentoring, coaching, and team development. But leadership and people development are two entirely different disciplines.

And expecting one person to master both?
It’s creating an unsustainable system — one that drains leaders, frustrates employees, and slows innovation.

The Hidden Pressure on Modern Leaders

Today’s leaders are expected to:

• Deliver on complex performance metrics

• Manage teams and operations under tight deadlines

• Design and execute strategy

• Coach, mentor, and develop every person on their team

That last one — people development — is where many organizations stumble. Because employee growth isn’t a box to check or a series of trainings. It’s an ongoing practice that demands emotional presence, feedback skills, relational safety, and sustained support.

We’re asking leaders to be visionaries and therapists, strategists and emotional navigators. It’s too much.

The Solution: A Dedicated People-Growth Department

What if instead of stacking more expectations onto leaders, we built a structural solution?

Enter a new department — staffed by in-house coaches, trainers, and development professionals — whose sole purpose is to elevate the growth, connection, and thriving of every team member.

This isn’t HR as it exists today, which is overwhelmed with policy and operations. It’s something entirely new: a proactive, skills-based, people-centered approach to thriving workplaces.

In this structure, leaders can focus on business strategy and execution, while the people-development team ensures that the human systems supporting the business are healthy, engaged, and evolving.

The Co-CEO Model in Action

This is where the Co-CEO framework comes to life: one CEO for the company (strategy, growth, operations), and one for the people (development, engagement, culture)—led by the Chief Employee Officer.

When leaders share this burden, they can co-create balance. And this is not just theory—dual leadership (or shared leadership) has been studied with encouraging outcomes. For example:

• Research on dual leadership shows that teams are more likely to challenge norms and innovate when leadership is shared. PMC

• According to Forbes, only ~30% of U.S. workers report being actively engaged in their work. Forbes

• Disengagement carries massive cost: Gallup estimates that global employee disengagement costs the global economy around $8.8 trillion annually in lost productivity, turnover, innovation losses, and related inefficiencies. Forbes

• High engagement correlates with improved financial outcomes: companies with highly engaged employees see up to 23% greater profitability than those with low engagement. Forbes

In other words: we have an extraordinary opportunity to improve business results by focusing on human flourishing.

The Benefits We Can Expect

• Relieved leaders. When the burden of development is shared, leaders can allocate energy where it serves most, while reaping the benefits of a well-developed team.

• Elevated skill everywhere. The people-development team helps raise individual, team, and organizational maturity.

• Increased engagement and retention. Organizations with high engagement see better performance, lower turnover, and more innovation. Staffbase+1

• Stronger culture. A company that invests in human flourishing becomes magnetic — attracting talent aligned with its values.

A Call to CEOs & Culture Leaders

If you sense this pressure in your organization — the expectation that leaders be everything to everyone — know that there is another way.

Systems can change. Structures can evolve. And it starts with leadership daring to share power not just for efficiency, but for life.

Give those of us who are obsessed with people growth the opportunity to co-create companies where people flourish from the inside out. Let’s shift the paradigm from “leaders develop ingpeople” to “people systems that support leaders and teams alike.”

If this idea resonates, let’s talk. I’m building toward this vision, and I’m calling in the bold, the curious, and the courageous.