3 strategies to develop future leaders in your organisation

Right now, we’re faced with an impending leadership crisis as senior leaders retire, taking with them the industry experience, skills and collective wisdom they’ve accumulated over decades.

Pre-pandemic, this was not necessarily a big problem, but the switch to remote work coupled with organisations prioritising survival over professional development has created a leadership vacuum.
Hybrid work means companies may need help identifying promising candidates, and cutbacks in learning and development has forced many HR departments down the more expensive route of external hires for senior positions.

But a leadership crisis doesn’t mean the talent no longer exists. If you can put the proper training in place, you'll benefit from higher employee retention rates, a more motivated workforce, and increased efficiency.

Want to find and develop emerging leaders within your organisation?
Read on for valuable tips and advice in leadership development.

Recognise potential

Strong candidates for leadership should have a clear long-term vision for their future and a desire to impact your organisation positively.

They will still need to gain all the hard skills a leader needs, but they'll already possess stand-out qualities and characteristics that can be developed.

Though by no means a definitive list, make a note of employees who show some or even all the following attributes:

• Adaptability
• Drive
• Selflessness
• Relationship building
• Problem-solving
• Empathy

These are all skills a successful modern leader needs.

But recognising potential isn’t purely about individual skill sets. A key question you’ll need to ask is, "What does potential look like in our organisation?”

Treating this like a tick-box exercise might be tempting – don't.

Your organisation’s culture, mission statement, and objectives are yours alone, and you'll need leaders whose values align with your purpose and vision.

Once you've identified future leaders with the right attributes and ideals that fit your brand, your next step should be to develop tailored professional development plans that create new opportunities and monitor progress.

Develop potential

Managers often assume that developing, implementing, and monitoring professional development is solely their responsibility, based on the needs of the team they lead.

But building a professional development plan that is meaningful, continuous, and results-driven is a challenge, and it's one you don't have to undertake by yourself.

Does your organisation have a learning and development team?

If so, these could be the perfect people to consult when planning empowering development opportunities for your future leaders.

Here are a few other ideas for learning solutions you can implement and colleagues you can involve in the process.

Leadership mentoring:

Draw on the experience and competencies of current leaders in your organisation by pairing them with potential leaders who may lack experience and expertise that will be invaluable to their future development.

Your colleagues should be able to provide you with useful insights that can help guide conversations and assess performance.

Job shadowing:

A great way to introduce high-potential candidates to leadership is by giving them first-hand experience of what leadership in your organisation looks like.

Job shadowing will also give your candidates a better idea of the capabilities they’ll need to gain and current skills they’ll need to refine; plus, it can be a helpful way to introduce them to essential stakeholders they'll need to work with to help shape your organisation.

Professional development courses:

If you can leverage your organisation's L&D team, now's the time to explore current and future opportunities for your future leaders.

Of course, not every organisation can call on a team of expert course creators, but there will be plenty of resources out there you can harness that’s specifically tailored to your needs.

The University of Melbourne offers a wide range of learning and development solutions by industry, including micro-credentials, short courses, and masterclasses.

Assess potential

Implementing leadership strategies and programs to future-proof your organisation is all well and good, but how can you accurately assess potential and progress?

When working one-on-one, try the following:

Performance reviews. A well-thought-out performance review remains a valuable tool for measuring progress. A good performance review should set clear future expectations, review priorities, and offer guidance.

Questionnaires. The focus here should be on the learner development program so candidates can rate its effectiveness and offer feedback on how/where it could be improved.

Quizzes. Quizzes designed for specific roles can help you identify skills and knowledge gaps that you can compare with current benchmarks to help support your candidates. You can use online quiz generator tools, or an old-fashioned pen and paper may suffice.

When collaborating with colleagues, consider these strategies:

360-degree feedback. A form of anonymous assessment that will allow your future leaders to gain confidential input from those around them, including managers and peers. This can be a useful strategy, but to ensure anonymity, you’ll need a large enough pool of assessors, and you’ll also need to put boundaries in place that prevent bias from becoming an issue.

Performance rubrics. Involving other managers and leaders in candidate assessment is essential because they will have their own insights and observations. A rubric that maps performance and potential objectively and removes bias will help you set clear objectives.

Invest in your future leaders

Leadership development is changing rapidly. The shift to hybrid work, non-linear career paths and the emergence of new and sometimes disruptive technologies means tomorrow’s leaders must be more innovative, adaptable, and capable of responding quickly to new trends and unexpected challenges.

By Identifying and cultivating leadership potential, you'll retain more of your brightest talent and be better positioned for long-term success.

Looking to enhance the skills of your future leaders? Explore our comprehensive range of raining and development opportunities to drive business growth.