Gurley Leadership Solutions · Ajax, Ontario
Your Leaders Are Stretched Thin. Is It Time for Outside Help?
The clear signs that tell a GTA or Durham Region company when to bring in leadership help, and the signs that say hold off.
Warning Signs
Durham Region + GTA
2026 Guide
35+ Years
Executive Experience
★5.0 Google Rating
LMI Canada Licensed
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
35+ Years Experience
Ajax, Ontario
By Malcolm Gurley, President
Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc. | Ajax, Ontario
Knowing when to bring in a leadership consultant is one of the hardest calls an owner makes. Most owners and executives I meet across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area do not wake up one day and decide to hire a leadership consultant. They wait. They wait through the warning signs, hoping things will settle on their own, and they usually only pick up the phone once a problem has become a crisis. By then it is more expensive and harder to fix than it needed to be.
I have spent more than 35 years in senior executive roles at organizations including Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Armstrong Fluid Technology, and I have watched this pattern play out again and again. So I want to give you something more useful than a sales pitch: an honest guide to the specific signs that tell you it is time to get outside support, the signs that say the problem is something else entirely, and how to tell the difference.
Direct answer: Knowing when to bring in leadership help comes down to recognizing a handful of clear signs: your best people are leaving, leaders promoted for technical skill are struggling to actually lead, managers cannot set strategy or drive change, your people are burning out with no one developing them, and you have no one ready to step into key roles. If several of these are true at once, and internal efforts have already stalled, it is time to consider an outside leadership development partner. The honest exception is that some of these problems are really about strategy, structure, or process rather than leadership skill, and no leadership program will fix those. The goal is to match the solution to the actual problem.
Why Do Companies Wait Too Long to Get Help?
The delay is rarely about the money. It is about the fact that leadership problems build slowly and quietly, so it is easy to explain each one away. A good manager leaves, and you tell yourself it was a one-off. A project slips, and you blame the timeline. Meanwhile the underlying issue, that your leaders were never developed to handle the scope they now carry, keeps compounding.
The data suggests the gap is widespread. McLean and Company’s Employee Engagement Trends Report 2026, drawing on more than 254,000 employees across 240 organizations, found that only 23% of employees rated their leaders as highly effective at developing and supporting their people. If roughly three in four leaders are not effectively developing the people under them, the warning signs are almost certainly present in more organizations than admit it. The question is whether you recognize them early enough to act.
When to Bring In a Leadership Consultant: The Clearest Signs
Here are the signs I look for. None of these on its own is a reason to panic, but when several show up together, they are telling you something. Read this as a diagnostic checklist rather than a verdict.
- Your best people are leaving. Losing strong performers, especially your high-potential people, is one of the loudest signals. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that high-potential talent is 3.7 times more likely to leave within the next year when their manager does not regularly provide growth and development. When good people walk, weak leadership is often the reason.
- Leaders promoted for technical skill are struggling to lead. The person who was your best engineer, salesperson, or operator is now a manager and clearly out of their depth. This is one of the most common and fixable situations, but it rarely resolves without deliberate development.
- Your managers cannot set strategy or lead change. When leaders freeze on direction and stumble through change, you have a capability gap. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 identified setting strategy and managing change as leaders’ two greatest skill gaps, while only 22% of HR teams currently prioritize building those skills, meaning most organizations are not addressing them.
- Your leaders are burning out with no time to develop anyone. Overwhelmed managers cannot grow their teams. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that 71% of leaders reported a significant increase in stress since stepping into their roles, and 40% of stressed leaders have considered leaving leadership altogether. A burned-out leadership layer is a bottleneck that outside support can relieve.
- You have no one ready to step into key roles. If a sudden departure would leave a critical seat empty, your bench is too thin. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that only 20% of HR leaders say they have leaders ready for critical roles, and internal candidates can fill just 49% of key positions immediately. That gap is a clear trigger to act.
- Growth is outpacing your leadership. When the business is scaling faster than your leaders can handle, and the owner has become the bottleneck for every decision, your leadership capability has not kept up with your ambition. Outside help can accelerate the catch-up.
- You have already tried to fix it internally, and it stalled. If you have attempted to develop leaders on your own and the effort fizzled, that is not a failure to feel bad about. It is a strong sign that you need outside structure, objectivity, and expertise to make it stick.
3.7X
DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found high-potential talent is 3.7 times more likely to leave within the next year when their manager does not regularly provide growth and development. Losing good people is often the first sign leadership needs attention.
What Are the Signs It Is Not Time, or Not Only Leadership?
Now the honest counterpoint, because bringing in outside help is not always the right move, and I would rather tell you that up front. Some of the problems that look like leadership failures are actually something else, and no leadership development program will fix the wrong problem.
If your results are suffering because of a flawed strategy, a broken process, an under-resourced team, or a product that is not competitive, then developing your leaders will help at the margins but will not solve the core issue. Be honest about whether the problem is the people leading or the situation they are leading in. Likewise, if you genuinely have strong, capable leaders and a learning function with the time and skill to develop others, you may not need an outside partner at all; you may just need to commit to using what you already have. And if you are in the middle of an acute crisis, sometimes the right first step is to stabilize the immediate situation before investing in longer-term development. The signal to bring in help is a pattern of leadership capability gaps, not a single bad quarter or a problem that lives somewhere other than your leadership.
How This Compares to the Big Training Brands
Large leadership brands such as FranklinCovey and Dale Carnegie offer recognizable, off-the-shelf programs that can build broad skills at scale. When the signs above point to a specific, situational problem in your organization, though, a standardized curriculum can be a blunt instrument, because it was not built around your particular leaders or the particular gap you are trying to close.
Our approach is built around proven Leadership Management International programs, customized to your organization and the specific signs you see, and delivered in person across Durham Region and the GTA. The point is to diagnose the real problem first and then target the development to it, rather than applying a generic program and hoping it lands.
How Do You Know a Leadership Consultant Will Actually Work?
Recognizing the signs is only half the decision. The other half is being honest about whether your organization is ready to make outside help pay off, because an outside partner cannot fix a problem your leadership will not own. I have seen well-designed engagements stall for reasons that had nothing to do with the program.
Outside help works when a few conditions are genuinely in place. There has to be real sponsorship from the top, not just permission but visible commitment. Your leaders have to be willing to hear hard truths and change how they operate, which takes some humility. There has to be accountability, so that what is learned is actually applied rather than filed away. And there has to be follow-through, because behavior change, meaning a lasting shift in how leaders actually work day to day, takes time and reinforcement. When those conditions are present, outside help can move an organization quickly. When they are absent, no partner and no program will save you, and it is better to fix that readiness first. If you want to think through honestly whether the signs in your organization point to outside help, the practical next step is a straightforward conversation. You can learn more about Malcolm Gurley and see why organizations choose Gurley Leadership Solutions.
Seeing Some of These Signs? Let’s Talk.
In a short call we can look honestly at what you see in your organization, whether it points to a leadership gap or something else, and what the right next step would be. No pressure, no obligation.
Call 416.669.7644, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
When does a company need outside leadership help?
A company typically needs outside leadership help when several warning signs appear together: strong performers are leaving, leaders promoted for technical skill are struggling to lead, managers cannot set strategy or drive change, people are burning out with no one developing them, and no one is ready to step into key roles. When these show up at once, and internal efforts have already stalled, it is usually time to bring in an outside leadership development partner.
What is the most common sign a company needs leadership help?
Losing your best people is often the loudest signal. DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that high-potential talent is 3.7 times more likely to leave within the next year when their manager does not regularly provide growth and development. When strong performers keep walking out the door, weak or undeveloped leadership is frequently the underlying reason, and it is worth taking seriously as an early warning.
Should we always bring in outside help for leadership problems?
No. Some problems that look like leadership failures are really about strategy, structure, process, or resourcing, and no leadership program will fix the wrong problem. If you have genuinely strong leaders and the internal capability to develop others, you may just need to commit to using it. Outside help makes the most sense when you see a clear pattern of leadership capability gaps, not a single bad quarter or an issue that lives elsewhere in the business.
What has to be true for outside leadership help to work?
Outside help works when a few conditions are genuinely in place: real sponsorship from senior leaders, a willingness among leaders to hear hard truths and change how they operate, accountability so that learning is actually applied, and follow-through over time. An outside partner cannot fix a problem your leadership will not own. When these conditions are present, results come quickly; when they are missing, it is better to build that readiness first.
Does Gurley Leadership Solutions work with organizations in Durham Region and the GTA?
Yes. Gurley Leadership Solutions is based in Ajax, Ontario and works directly with organizations across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area, including Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Pickering, Barrie, and Mississauga, across manufacturing, healthcare, not-for-profit, engineering, and operations sectors. Every program is a proven Leadership Management International program, delivered in person, customized to your organization, and tracked for measurable outcomes.
Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc. delivers leadership development and organizational improvement programs licensed through Leadership Management International; every engagement is customized and outcomes vary by organization. Return-on-investment figures, including any 10:1 reference, describe typical results from prior engagements and are not a guarantee of future results. Government-funding reimbursement, including any percentage stated above, is determined by the relevant program administrators, not by Gurley Leadership Solutions; amounts and eligibility change without notice and were current as of 19 July 2026. This article is general information, not a proposal and not an offer.
Malcolm Gurley, President
Malcolm Gurley is President of Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc., based in Ajax, Ontario. With more than 35 years of senior executive experience at Fortune 100 and manufacturing organizations including Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Armstrong Fluid Technology, he helps organizations across the Greater Toronto Area and Durham Region recognize where their leadership is falling short and build the capability to fix it. He is LMI Canada licensed and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Every program is a proven Leadership Management International program, customized to the organization, with a return on investment of typically 10:1 or better. Learn more about Malcolm Gurley and why organizations choose Gurley Leadership Solutions.
