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Is There a Leadership Crisis? Making the Case for a Leadership Development Program

Here’s a step-by-step plan to design an effective leader and manager development program, starting with key stakeholder buy-in.

Article

February 18, 2025

By: Shari Simpson

MBA, MHRM, SHRM-SCP, Senior Manager, Thought Leadership

HR leaders have seen it coming for years. The pending mass retirement of Baby Boomers. A new generation of workers who began their careers during the pandemic. The increasingly complex role of people managers, from inspiring innovation to supporting employee mental health to navigating rapid changes in technology.

Is there a leadership crisis? That could depend on whether you have a leadership development program in place.

According to Gartner, leader and manager development are a top priority for HR leaders in 2025. If it’s a top priority for your company, this article will guide you through the three phases of effective leadership program planning:

Assessment — Identifying leadership gaps with stakeholder involvement.
Case Development — Demonstrating ROI and linking to strategic objectives.
Program Framework — Defining goals and building a leadership pipeline.

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Phase 1: Leadership Assessment and Skills Gap Analysis

Before you can assess if leadership skills are missing, you have to determine what skills leaders need to drive your business forward.

As you start to lay the groundwork for a leadership development initiative, it’s critical to partner with the people in your organization who ultimately own the program’s success. First, make sure you’re cued in to your executive team’s approach for growing the business and the leadership roles they anticipate needing. What skills gaps do they see?

Thinking broadly about stakeholder involvement from the outset of the planning process is a hallmark of successful leadership programs. Those stakeholders include not only an executive sponsor but also your frontline managers who know the role-specific skills they need. Seek out diverse perspectives from new and tenured managers, as well as others who represent the intersectionalities of your workforce.

Conducting a Leadership Skills Gap Analysis

There’s no end of data you can collect to assess individual skills, from formal tests and certifications to performance reviews and self-evaluations. How you slice that data so it informs your leadership program design depends on how you answer two questions:

What is the business problem you want to solve?
How will you measure the success of the program?

The answer to the first question may seem deceptively simple. Increase productivity. Speed up innovation. Reduce turnover.

To accomplish these goals, however, leaders and managers need different sets of skills, from technical skills to professional or power skills. Understanding the business priorities driving your organization’s need for leadership development will help you tailor programs to achieve specific outcomes.

Identify the core skills you want every leader to have, as well as the skills leaders need in their areas or at different levels. For example, do managers in production need the same skills as sales managers? Do mid-level managers need the same mastery of skills as senior leaders?

Below are example competencies and skills for leaders:

Basic

Custom

Level

Communication
Decision making
Emotional intelligence
Adaptability and resilience
Strategic thinking

Technical skills
Power skills
Industry-specific skills
Role-specific skills
Leadership style diversity

New Leader (novice): Has practical understanding of technical area but limited experience managing others.

Mid-Level (intermediate): Understands business impacts of work and has experience managing projects and teams.

Senior (advanced): Applies theory to solve real-world problems, manages other managers, and advises executive leadership.

Determining which metrics are important to your c-suite will also help you prioritize what skills to assess both in the planning stage and as you continue to refine your program. Some key performance indicators you might measure include promotion rates, retention impact, employee engagement, and performance improvement.

Learn More: Using Skills Gap Analysis to Develop Your Employees

Phase 2: Case Development Through Strategic Alignment

A strong leadership program benefits everyone in the organization, from increased productivity to safer working conditions to better work-life balance for managers and their teams. Plus, when everyone invests in skills development, organizations can adapt more quickly to shifting market demands.

Aligning leadership development with business goals up front is key to gaining executive buy-in, which is key to securing the resources you need to build an effective program. Make the connections clear between leadership capabilities and achieving strategic objectives.

Your executive team will also want to know how the value of your leadership program can increase over time. Often that means addressing tactical areas like efficiency and compliance first and then looking at the skills that will sustain future business growth, like adaptability and strategic thinking. Consider short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

Making the Case: The “What If” Scenario

Another way to frame your case is to ask, “What’s at risk if we do not develop leaders?”

For example, say your company is planning to introduce a new product in the next year that requires adopting a new technology or process. What happens if leaders at different levels or in different areas are not equipped to manage that change? Some possibilities include:

Poor communication and coordination across departments.
Employee frustration that leads to lower productivity.
Disruptions in production due to lack of technical skills.

Now, how could a leadership development program address these concerns?

Improve communication through team-building activities.
Provide leaders actionable steps to improve morale based on employee feedback data.
Upskill managers in key production areas so they can cascade learning.

Remember, frontline managers are key stakeholders, too. Help them see how they will benefit from the program. While your CFO wants to hear about revenue pull-through, a frontline manager wants to know what’s in it for them. That could include opportunities to gain new skills, improve team collaboration, retain the best employees, and have a greater impact on the organization’s success.

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Phase 3: Determining the Right Framework for Your Org

Upskilling and reskilling efforts are fueled by the need to innovate and compete. HR knows a well-trained workforce is key to building a culture of agility, and executive leadership will want to see how these initiatives pay off in terms of productivity and profitability.

How you build your leadership program depends on your desired outcomes, which you’ve now diligently aligned with strategic business goals. Let’s look at some examples of leadership development frameworks and scenarios where they might apply.

Vision and mission: Your organization is growing quickly, and subsequently you have a lot of first-time managers. What training and tools will help them communicate your vision and mission consistently and model your values?

Program goals: You’ve identified specific program goals based on your skills gap analysis. For example, mid-level leaders are charged with speeding innovation but lack necessary AI skills.

Leadership pipeline: You have a large workforce population about to retire. Do you have emerging leaders ready to take the reins? What training can you put in place now to help them grow into those roles?

Succession planning: The time for succession planning is before a leader in a critical position leaves the company. Whether a departure is expected or unexpected, are others prepared to step into the vacancy when needed?

Cross-functional approach: As your organization grows and matures, a cross-functional approach to leadership may become more important based on your client load to achieve consistent customer service across channels.

There’s freedom within all these frameworks to address both the core components leaders at every level should have and the specific skills that will make them more effective in their particular role.

What Does a Leadership Program Look Like?

A leadership development program can take many forms, which of course require various degrees of commitment and resources. Again, returning to your goals, what types of learning experiences will be most effective?

Some approaches to consider include:

Structured coursework (in person, online, or hybrid)
Mentoring
Job rotations
Stretch assignments
Real-world problem solving
Shadowing senior leaders

Effective programs target leaders with similar needs and incorporate multiple learning approaches. For example, first-time managers may need foundational training initially but may also benefit from 1:1 mentoring over an extended period. High-potential candidates for advancement could develop their leadership and communication skills working with a group to solve a real-world problem.

Keep in mind, it takes time to move the needle on some key performance indicators, like retention impact or promotion rates. Using surveys to measure improvements in employee satisfaction and tracking course completions through an LMS will help you score some early wins.

Phase 4: Implementation and Beyond

You thought there were only three phases, but there’s always a Phase 4!

As you implement leadership programs and gather feedback, you’ll find ways to refine them over time. Keeping that feedback loop open is critical, and making the most of your data insights will keep you on a path of continuous improvement. As you review your program KPIs, recognize accomplishments and celebrate your wins!

You’ll also have to update programs or create new ones to address advances in technology and shifts in the labor market. Conducting a skills gap analysis annually is a proactive way to keep leadership curriculum relevant.

Your workforce evolves, so the methodologies you use to facilitate learning may need to evolve, too. At some point, you may need to look externally for coursework or training. Technologies like learning management systems, virtual collaboration tools, and AI can elevate your leadership development to the next level.

But don’t forget about the many free resources available, including our HR Mixtape podcast and monthly webinars!