Leadership development plan: align growth with business goals

How does your organization equip its leaders for future opportunities and challenges? Most professionals step into leadership roles without formal training — 82% of leaders in a recent study identified themselves as “accidental managers” with no structured development.*‍

Today’s leaders face volatile economic circumstances, rapid market shifts, and frequent regulatory changes, so they must be equipped with the right competencies to navigate these conditions. Robust leadership development plans help pinpoint strengths, target growth areas, and build the skills to succeed.

Keep reading as we cover the core components of an effective leadership development plan and provide a detailed, best-practice guide for putting a plan together. 

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*Chartered Management Institute, 2023
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What is a leadership development plan?

A leadership development plan is a long-term program designed to help an organization’s leaders (or aspiring leaders) develop their key leadership competencies. These plans can include development goals like mentorship, public speaking, or specific learning objectives to fill skills gaps. However, the most impactful leadership development plans align with key business priorities. 

Successfully building and maintaining leadership development plans is increasingly important, with most large businesses looking to promote existing talent; in 2024, 73% of incoming CEOs appointed at global, publicly listed companies were internal hires.

Adopting leadership development plans promotes continuous learning and accountability and creates better, more effective leaders — benefiting individuals, teams, and wider business performance.
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5 steps to creating an effective leadership development plan

As with employee development plans, there’s no single way to approach leadership development plans.

Paola Cecchi Dimeglio, Chair ELRIWMA & Senior Fellow at Harvard, told Forbes that leadership training programs should “offer a unique blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skill-building” and equip professionals “with the tools and confidence to handle future leadership roles effectively.” 

Considering this, factor in the individual’s needs, skills, and ambitions alongside key organizational priorities to build an impactful leadership development plan.
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1. Identify leadership needs

First, assess your current leadership needs and determine what kind of leadership your organization would benefit from — now and in the long run. To establish leadership needs, consider: 

• Gaps in the existing leadership structure — What are your company’s weaknesses, threats, or blind spots? Is a specific department missing a strong leader? Does your leadership team need more agility? Is there a lack of empowering leadership at the C-suite level?

• Overarching business strategy — Forecast upcoming opportunities and challenges (like global expansion or artificial intelligence adoption) and consider their implications. These insights should help shape your leadership development plan, so digging deep into them is essential.

• Input from senior leaders — Conduct brainstorming sessions and 1:1 meetings (or send out surveys) to gather diverse perspectives and paint a clear picture of your company’s leadership landscape.
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2. Assess the strengths & potential of current talent

Next, explore the capabilities and potential of your existing team members. Start by connecting directly with possible future leaders — informal 1:1 meetings can help you understand their skills, ambitions, motivations, and the aspects of their current role that they enjoy the most.

In addition, review these team members’ performance histories to spot any trends in their feedback and examine the outcomes of their appraisals. Combined with skills assessments, manager talks, and observation, you should get a good idea of who might be well-suited for leadership roles.

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3. Set collaborative leadership development goals

Once you’ve identified future leaders, collaborate with them to set achievable, measurable leadership development goals. These goals should align with individual strengths, interests, and skills gaps while supporting organizational success. 

Frameworks like objectives and key results (OKRs) and SMART goals can help establish objectives and track progress — whether the employee is improving technical skills or enhancing their emotional intelligence. 

One way to foster accountability is through Leapsome Goals, which accommodates flexible goal-setting. It provides future leaders and managers with a comprehensive overview of goal progress, dependencies, and timelines. 

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4. Create personalized development pathways

To make the goals you set a reality, design personalized development pathways incorporating various learning opportunities. Investing in a solution like Leapsome Learning simplifies the creation of these pathways and provides a bespoke space where future leaders can access top-quality learning materials.

In addition to learning materials, consider the following: 

• Incorporating competency frameworks — Future leaders can benefit from competency frameworks, which outline the specific skills needed for career progression.

• Setting future leaders up with a mentor or coach — Connect future leaders with senior colleagues with similar career paths and interests to facilitate in-house guidance. 
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5. Consistently assess progress & pivot as necessary

A sustainable leadership development plan should be dynamic — flexing to meet changing business needs and individual progress. Regular feedback and check-ins between managers and reports can help track progress and allow for adjustments where necessary. Prompting future leaders to complete regular self-assessments can also give you a sense of their perspectives while encouraging reflection.

If someone’s leadership development journey isn’t going as anticipated (perhaps they show promise in another area or find one aspect of their plan unfulfilling), don’t be afraid to revisit your plan and pivot.
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Measuring the ROI of leadership development plans

Securing resources for leadership development plans can be challenging, but measuring HR ROI can make all the difference. With defined objectives and metrics, you can provide clear evidence of a plan’s effectiveness and build a business case for continued investment. Consider demonstrating success with the following:

• Quantitative metrics — Retention of top performers, leadership pipeline conversion rates, and productivity increases.
  
  
• Qualitative insights — Case studies, direct feedback, and leader self-assessments.

You could also adopt custom frameworks like the four-tiered Kirkpatrick Model (designed to facilitate training program evaluation), or leverage the Success Case Method, which examines the most and least successful program cases to extract key learnings.
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Invest in your organization’s next leaders with Leapsome

Crafting bespoke plans that encourage continuous learning and effectively develop employees’ leadership skills may seem complex, but the benefits at an organizational level are undeniable. 

As Shelby Wolpa, HR Advisor to Startups & Scaleups, noted in our 2024 Workforce Trends Report, “[i]nvesting in managers is critical for distributed organizations to combat issues with retention, burnout, and workplace conflict.”

To effectively support your future leaders, implement a multistep approach to creating a leadership development plan and harness data-driven people enablement tools like Leapsome Goals, Reviews, Learning, and Instant Feedback. These tools foster accountability and provide visibility into leadership plan progress. 

Ultimately, by actively preparing your organization’s next generation of leaders, you can mitigate business threats, boost employee performance, and achieve long-term company goals.

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Our holistic suite of people enablement tools is here to support your leadership development initiatives. 

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FAQs about leadership development plans

Why create a leadership development plan?

Leadership development plans empower aspiring and existing leaders to identify their strengths and establish key areas for improvement. These plans foster holistic leadership competencies while ensuring individual growth aligns with business needs.
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What are common challenges of building a leadership development plan?

Building a leadership development plan can be complex — yet the specific challenges of the process vary in line with the individual leader and the organization. Difficulties may include: 

• Creating clear, realistic, and sustainable objectives
• Accurately measuring progress and ROI
• Aligning the plan with broader business goals
• Tailoring the plan to individual development needs
• Allocating sufficient time and resources for accountability
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What are the 5 Cs of leadership development?

Many organizations use the 5 Cs framework to guide leadership skill development:

Credibility — Practising integrity and transparency in your approach to leadership 

Competence — Having the capability to know what needs doing and how to get it done 

Communications — Being clear and consistent in your interactions with others    

Commitment — Showing dedication to your growth, your role, and the business 

Courage — Leading your team through change and making decisions with conviction