Rainmakers
Best Practices For Leadership Development
By Dr. Clifford Ferguson
Understanding Leadership Development
Despite billions spent on leadership development, leader quality ratings haven’ t improved over the past 15 years. In 2024, employees said that only 40 % of their leaders were high quality. According to DDI’ s Global Leadership Forecast 2025, these consistently low ratings reveal a critical gap: Many leadership development programs fail to deliver business results or win stakeholder support. However, leaders are 15X more likely to be rated high quality when they experience highly rated leadership development- proving that the right approach makes the difference.
Too many programs, however, still fail to deliver business results or win stakeholder support. When companies focus on best practices for leadership development, they see real gains in both leader quality and business performance. And when L & D teams can show that evidence, securing resources becomes far easier. By focusing on what truly works, HR and L & D professionals can create programs that deliver lasting impact.
Leadership development improves people’ s skills, abilities, and confidence to lead within an organisation. Effective leaders drive strong performance through actions like fostering innovation, cultivating a positive workplace culture, and leading change. Every development experience should help leaders address today’ s challenges and prepare them for the future.
Leadership development isn’ t a checkbox exercise- it goes far beyond mandatory training. It creates a pipeline of capable leaders who can navigate complexity and inspire others to reach their potential. This directly impacts an organisation’ s success. Leaders set the vision and direction for their teams, boost employee engagement, and keep turnover at bay. They make decisions, solve problems, and manage conflicts to create a productive workplace. They make
04 MAL71 / 26 ISSUE decisions, solve problems, and manage conflicts to create a productive workplace.
In short, effective leaders deliver lasting impact and measurable business outcomes. Organisations that prioritise development build stronger teams, see better outcomes, and gain an edge over their competitors.
Creating a successful leadership development program requires a strategic approach that aligns with an organisation’ s goals and addresses the real challenges leaders face. The right design ensures leaders build the skills and insights they need to improve and deliver results. Consider these best practices to create a program with lasting impact.
Design Your Program Around the Business Strategy
Aligning leadership development with an organisation’ s strategy creates both immediate impact and long-term business advantages. Effective leadership development starts with clear business drivers and the right leadership skills development focus areas. This creates a direct link between what your organisation needs and the leadership skills you’ re building. You can use a leadership competency model tailored to your unique business drivers, then map core competencies to roles by level.
For example, if your company is expanding in its market, development programs should focus on leadership skills like change management and strategic thinking.
Flexibility is also essential- when business strategies shift, leadership programs must adapt accordingly. Establishing regular review processes and feedback loops helps maintain this critical alignment over time.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Even with the best intentions, organisations often stumble when aligning development with strategy. Watch for these frequent missteps:
Selecting generic skills: Don ' t choose broad leadership capabilities without considering your specific business context.
This could create development that feels irrelevant to participants and produces limited organisational impact.
Poor stakeholder engagement: Neglecting to secure buy-in from business leaders early in the process results in programs that lack crucial support and resources when implementation begins.
No measurable goals set: Failing to establish clear metrics up front that demonstrate business impact makes it impossible to prove value, putting funding at risk.
By addressing these challenges from the outset, you can create leadership development with strong strategic alignment.
Personalise Development for Maximum Impact
Leaders are constantly pressed for time- only 30 % say they have enough time to do their jobs. With limited bandwidth, they need development that targets their most critical needs. And they can’ t afford to spend time in training that doesn’ t help them progress.
Time scarcity is also a major driver of stress and burnout: 71 % of leaders report significantly increased stress levels, and 40 % have considered leaving leadership roles entirely.
Given this stress and time crunch, development needs to be focused, hyper-relevant, and personalised. And that makes assessments a key starting point. Ongoing insights and feedback also help leaders see their progress and inspire them to keep growing.
Beyond individual insights, assessments bring value to L & D teams who want to