Here’s what’s happening right now at agencies across the Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing and Communications industry: It’s a leadership gap, and it’s keeping me up at night.

With the Omnicom-IPG merger eliminating more than 4,000 positions in the past few weeks alone, with some estimates going as high as 23,000 positions cut over the past two years as a result of it, and with similar cuts rippling through agencies of all sizes, the industry is losing an enormous amount of senior leadership experience. EVPs, SVPs, Managing Directors: people who spent decades learning how to lead teams, navigate client crises, and develop the next generation of talent.

And in their place? We’re asking middle managers to step up. Right now. Ready or not.

I’m not criticizing these emerging leaders. Many of them are smart, capable, and hungry to grow. But here’s what drives me nuts: we’re promoting people into leadership roles without giving them the skills to actually lead. We’re handing them the title and the responsibility, but not the toolkit.

This is a setup for failure. And not just their failure; the potential failure of the teams for which they’re now responsible.

The Gap Is Real

Think about what senior leaders know that middle managers often haven’t learned yet:

How to have a difficult conversation without destroying a relationship. How to give feedback that actually builds someone up rather than shutting them down. How to manage lead up: to advocate for their team with the C-suite (you’ll notice I call it leading up, not managing up) How to hold people accountable while still being human. How to lead through uncertainty when they don’t have the answers themselves.

These aren’t “soft” skills. (And it’s time to retire that phrase. But that’s for another post) These are the hardest skills in business, the ones that provide the greatest ROI. And they don’t come automatically with a new title.

The Stakes Are Too High

Here’s the math that agency leaders should be doing right now:

You just lost a significant portion of your leadership bench. You’re promoting people to fill those gaps. If those new leaders struggle, if they burn out, if they lose their best people, if they damage client relationships, you’re not just back to square one. You’re worse off than before.

The cost of not developing these emerging leaders is far greater than the investment in actually preparing them.

Where Executive Coaching Comes In

This is exactly where executive coaching accelerates the learning curve. A good coach doesn’t just tell new leaders what to do. That’s consulting. Coaching helps them discover their own leadership style for the team members they’re leading, understand their default patterns, create greater self-awareness, enhance their clarity and expand their skills.

When I work with emerging leaders, we focus on the real situations they’re navigating right now. Not theory. Not case studies from a textbook. The actual conversation they’re dreading. The team dynamic that’s driving them crazy. The moment when they feel like an imposter in the room.

Research shows executive coaching produces an average 788% ROI. But for leaders who are being asked to step up before they’re ready? The ROI is even higher, because the alternative is watching them sink.

A Call to Agency Leaders

If you’re running an agency right now, ask yourself: What are we doing to support the people we just promoted into leadership?

If the answer is “we gave them a bigger title and hoped for the best,” you’ve got a problem. And it’s going to show up in reduced team engagement, increased turnover, and in client satisfaction.

The good news? This is fixable. Investing in coaching for your emerging leaders isn’t a luxury. It’s a strategic imperative. The agencies that figure this out will come out of these consolidations stronger. The ones that don’t… won’t.

If you’re an agency leader thinking about how to support your newly promoted managers, or if you’re one of those managers who just got handed a leadership role and you’re wondering how to rise to it , I’d love to talk. I offer a complimentary consultation to explore whether coaching might help. Just use the Book An Appointment link on my LinkedIn Profile or my Calendly link.

Because the stakes are too high to figure this out alone.