Investing in Leadership Development? You'll Want to Read This...

In today’s ever-changing, complex, post-pandemic, hybrid world of work, managers frequently find themselves balancing the needs of their team members with the expectations of senior executives.

No wonder then, this perpetual feeling of “being caught in the middle” is leading to manager burnout and stress which ultimately has a negative impact on business performance. And with 70% of managers saying they don’t have the skills to lead in today’s hybrid world of work, we need to move fast to upskill leaders.

Developing leaders, however, is itself a challenging feat – manager training isn’t always successful, managers are often hesitant to take time away from their “day jobs” to learn how to be effective leaders, and even when we do train them, the learning doesn’t stick or ends up being a generic, “one-size-fits-none” experience.

If you’re an HR leader or CEO, and you want to make leadership development a priority for your organization in 2025, take a look at this two-part conversation I recently had with Mariam Mushtaq of Springworks before you craft your plan:

Part 1: The Current State of Leadership Development and Effective Program Models

Part 2: What You Need to Know Before You Invest (More) in Leadership Development: Challenges & Future Trends

Mariam and I sat down (virtually) to discuss:

• The current state of leadership development;
• What leadership development looks like in small vs. big organizations;
• How you can track the effectiveness of your leadership development efforts;
• How to adapt your approach at key inflection points such as M&A or restructuring;
• …and much more!

With only 25% of companies saying that their leadership development programs deliver high value, the current state of leadership development is dire. Almost every business problem faced by organizations today can be solved, at least in part, through effective leadership. This is not just a nice-to-have; great leaders are force multipliers, they drive superior organizational performance, and they build teams that attract the best talent. This is a business imperative.