Leaders love to talk about "developing people," but most confuse leadership with running a rehab center. Your time, attention, and coaching are finite resources, and squandering them on the unwilling or incapable is malpractice. Enter the Three Gates — a stern but fair filter that decides where you invest, and where you walk away.
The Three Gates
- Do They Want to Be Here?
Motivation is non-negotiable. If someone doesn't want the role, the team, or the company, no amount of coaching will fix it. You can't install desire like a software update.- Red flag: "I'm just here for the paycheck."
- Pass: "I want to grow here — even if I don't have all the skills yet."
- Are They Capable?
Willingness without skill is just enthusiasm. Capability is about whether someone can realistically meet the demands of the role, either now or after a reasonable ramp.- Red flag: Missing deadlines repeatedly, even on "easy mode."
- Pass: Still learning, but delivering outcomes at a growing pace.
- Are They Applying Guidance?
The third gate is the execution test. Do they listen, adjust, and get better? Or do they collect feedback like stickers while making the same mistakes on repeat?- Red flag: Nods in meetings, ignores it all in practice.
- Pass: Takes feedback, adapts, and the improvement is visible.
Fail any gate, and your coaching investment should drop to near zero. Harsh? No. Honest. Because pouring energy into someone who doesn't pass the gates steals from those who do.
Example in Action
At a midsize SaaS company, a manager spends six months trying to "save" an engineer who misses deadlines, resists feedback, and openly says they're planning to leave. Meanwhile, two hungry juniors keep knocking it out of the park but get almost no coaching. That's malpractice. Applying the Three Gates, the disengaged engineer would've been managed out in month one, and the juniors would've gotten the investment they earned. Instead, leadership coddled mediocrity and starved potential.
Contrast With Conventional Nonsense
- Traditional Approach: Throw everyone into the same "performance management" system, set quarterly OKRs, and pretend progress reports measure growth. In reality, you end up wasting cycles on people who don't care, can't perform, or won't change.
- Three Gates Approach: Treat leadership as triage. Invest heavily in those who want it, can do it, and apply it. Starve the rest. Growth compounds where effort isn't wasted.
Takeaway: Stop treating leadership as charity. Apply the Three Gates sternly, and you'll spend less time babysitting and more time scaling the people who actually move the business forward.
