SHRM just reported that nearly 70% of organizations struggled to fill positions in 2025.¹ The recommended fix — reskill, upskill, recruit harder, cast wider. All reasonable. All worth doing.
But here's the part nobody's putting in the report: you can train someone all the way to the top of their game, and they can leave on a Tuesday. Take everything with them. And you're back to square one with a fresh budget and a familiar headache.
I learned something different early in my career. I was managing a factory floor, and one of the guys — we called him Chocolate — spent the start of every shift hunting for the templates he needed to do his job. Every single day. Lost time, lost momentum, low-grade frustration baked into the morning before anything even started.
One day I asked him: "You're the one doing the job — if it were up to you, how would you fix it?"
He had the answer in about four minutes. We implemented it the same day. And almost immediately, other people started offering ideas too. Because someone finally asked.
Potential exists everywhere. What varies is whether the conditions around people allow it to expand — or quietly collapse.
SHRM is right that organizations need to recruit from wider pools — veterans, people over 60, workers who've been overlooked for reasons that have nothing to do with capability.² That's smart. But bringing in people the organization hasn't historically hired only works if the leadership conditions are there to receive them. Different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of showing up — those only become assets when a boss knows how to create an environment where people feel trusted, seen, and worth betting on.
Reskilling builds knowledge. Best Bosses build conditions where knowledge actually stays.
The talent gap is real. But some of it isn't a gap at all. It's potential sitting three desks over, waiting for someone to ask the right question.
Leadership happens in moments.™
¹ SHRM. (2026). Top 5 Workplace Policy Issues for CEOs to Watch in 2026. shrm.org/ceopolicytrends2026
² Ibid.