Your “Good” Leaders Are Your Biggest Liability Right Now, and CCOs Hold the Key

New research reveals why the leadership gap that matters most is the one no one’s watching — and why it’s a communication problem at its root.

Every major initiative you support depends on leaders who can bring people along. You can craft the perfect message, build the ideal cascade, create compelling content. But if the leaders delivering those messages aren’t equipped to lead through uncertainty, your work gets stuck in the middle of the organization.

That’s why this research should matter to every CCO.

Here’s a question most executive teams never think to ask: What if your biggest leadership vulnerability isn’t the leaders everyone’s worried about, but the ones no one is?

Not the underperformers. Not the ones generating HR complaints. The solid, dependable, competent managers who hit their numbers, show up prepared, and do a generally good job. The ones you’d describe as “good.”

New research from The Grossman Group and The Harris Poll suggests those leaders are exactly the ones who should concern you most right now — and CCOs are uniquely positioned to do something about it.

The Slow Leak No One Sees

A few months ago, we discovered a slow leak in our basement. Not a burst pipe. Not water gushing across the floor. Nothing dramatic. Just a small, quiet leak behind a wall.

The house looked fine. Everything functioned. We had no idea.

By the time we found it, the water had been running for months. It had warped the framing, gotten into the drywall, created mold we couldn’t see. What should have been a simple fix turned into a major repair — not because the leak was catastrophic, but because it was invisible. Nobody thought to look.

That’s what we found in the data.

We partnered with The Harris Poll, surveyed more than 2,200 employed Americans, and asked them to tell us everything about their leaders. The biggest group — 54% — aren’t bad. They’re good. Solid. Competent. They hit their numbers, show up prepared, don’t generate complaints. Every executive team in America looks at that and thinks, “we’re fine.” Only 30% are rated as exceptional. And the performance gap isn’t marginal — exceptional leaders outperform good ones by more than 2x on every dimension we measured.

The Water Behind the Walls

When we asked employees how they actually feel under those good leaders, that’s where the leak showed up. Only 19% feel heard. The number who feel that what’s important to them as a person is valued? Sixteen percent. And just 14% feel they’re reaching their full potential.

Nobody’s complaining. The house looks fine. But the framing is warping.

Good leaders were never trained to lead with their heart in their head — to harmonize emotional intelligence with strategic thinking. They fall back on what they know: facts, plans, processes. In uncertain times, that’s not enough. Employees aren’t just looking for information. They’re looking for meaning.

And here’s the part that should concern every CCO: good leadership paired with the kind of uncertainty we’re all living through right now — AI, economic volatility, constant restructuring — doesn’t produce a crisis anyone can point to. It produces anxiety, complacency, and drift. A slow erosion most organizations don’t see until the damage is already done.

Why This Is a CCO Problem

When we analyzed the top ten attributes that most separate exceptional from good leaders, nine out of ten are Heart attributes, such as: gratitude, listening, empathy, trust. Just one is a Head attribute.

Think about what that means. The gap isn’t about strategy, operations, or technical skill — good leaders already have those. What they’re missing is gratitude that’s spoken out loud. Listening that goes deeper than the surface. Empathy that people actually feel. And presence, especially in the absence of certainty.

Those are communication behaviors. Every single one of them. And they’re exactly the kind of thing that, left unaddressed, keeps leaking quietly behind the walls.

The Full Picture

Our new white paper lays out the complete research behind these findings. You’ll see the Leadership Formula grid mapping outcomes across every combination of leadership quality and uncertainty, and the emotional gap data that shows exactly what good leaders’ people feel versus what they don’t. We also break down the six differentiators separating exceptional leaders from good ones, along with five actions CCOs can take to start closing this gap — including a hard look at whether your organization’s DNA is still fit for this moment.

The data makes a compelling case: leader communication training isn’t “development” or “growth,” language that makes it feel optional. It’s transformation readiness. CCOs are the ones best positioned to make that argument — and to back it up.

The danger isn’t your bad leaders. You know who they are. The danger is your good ones. Because no one’s looking there. Don’t wait until you’re tearing out drywall.

Download the white paper: “Your ‘Good’ Leaders Are Your Biggest Liability Right Now” →

David Grossman is the founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, a leadership and communication consultancy that helps Fortune 500 companies transform leadership effectiveness and organizational culture. His forthcoming book, The Heart Work of Modern Leadership: 6 Differentiators of Exceptional Leaders, is available for pre-order at amazon.com.