Training Can Be a Remedy for Job Uncertainty

There's a paradox happening in boardrooms today: Companies insist that developing leaders is a top priority, yet most don't have the proper training in place, so leaders don't have the tools to help create new leaders. The result is a widening leadership gap that shows up as stalled transformation efforts, messy successions, disengaged teams, and reactive hiring that costs time and money. Now it's become critical for talent development professionals to help build a pipeline that produces leaders ready to steer their company into the future.

Recent industry studies reveal that leaders and HR teams are flagging persistent bench strength—the depth and level of leadership readiness among talent at an organization—as a problem, which weakens the leadership pipeline. For example, DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2025 report found that a staggering 80 percent of companies lack confidence in their leadership pipelines.

"Organizations succeed when they nurture leadership. They do not prepare executives only for progression, but they nurture them for next-level growth, role, and capabilities," explains Shruti Jain, founder of skill development company Increment-US. "This means they need to identify potential early [and] create real-world learning challenges, stretch projects, and cross-functional assignments."

Jain's experience during the past 10 years includes facilitating almost 12,000 hours of training in leadership, strategy, behavior, and team development.

One matter compounding the pipeline problem is that companies continue to flatten layers and run heavy cost-cutting cycles that often remove middle managers—the core of most leadership pipelines. Korn Ferry's Workforce 2025: Power Shifts report reveals that 41 percent of organizations have "slashed" management layers, leaving fewer seats where leaders can learn on the job.

When employers remove the training ground for rising leaders, companies shrink the supply pool. Executive leadership coach Cindy Saunders, who has spent more than two decades in business leadership roles, sees that as a significant problem.

"When well equipped, middle leaders can model strong leadership, develop their teams, and ensure the organization's values are lived out daily," she says. "But when they aren't supported, the entire pipeline begins to weaken."

Jain agrees, calling middle managers "success architects" because they align with company strategy, derive actionable goals, and deliver relevant results.

"Middle managers convert strategy to action. If middle management is weak in any organization, then the strategy is not reasonable and execution is too weak," she explains. "They are a critical link from business and organizational growth perspectives. They also understand ground-level challenges better than the senior management."

Moving the needle

To tackle leadership development, organizations need to view TD practitioners as the core of the company, implores Bill Lightfoot, a business coach for Growthspace and the Humanitarian Coaching Network.

"I like taking a blended approach, where people will learn—often initially at their own pace—then have the chance to apply what they have learned in real time," Lightfoot states. "Working with a coach and often supported by a team of mentors (both formal and informal), [new leaders] can get the guidance and words of wisdom that help them learn from experience as well as from failure."

Lightfoot also advocates for external coaches who can provide the next generation of leaders with the space they need to speak freely and openly about their aspirations and what's holding them back.

"A good third party also can provide targeted workshops for teams or cohorts on specific topics—such as innovation, executive communications, leadership foundations, and management foundations that augment self-paced learning, coaching, and mentoring," he says.

Jain adds that "The key is to design a training that doesn't produce leaders to fit in, but to take the organization forward. Cross-functional exposure helps in bringing multiple perspectives."

TD teams can help their companies see leadership readiness not as an event but as a process. According to Korn Ferry's report, conducting diagnostics and mapping skills against future role requirements enables the TD function to provide the business with a clear view of where its future leaders stand today. That evidence-driven approach helps prevent the common mistake of assuming that employers can quickly develop leaders when vacancies arise. Instead, readiness becomes a continuous measure, not a last-minute scramble.

To that point, Saunders says leadership often relies too heavily on checklists of skills. Genuine development requires something more profound: an internal shift in how leaders see themselves and their role.

"That means moving from managing tasks to developing people and from measuring outputs alone to shaping outcomes that matter for both the business and its people," she explains. "Skill building matters, but it has to be paired with self-awareness and reflection."

Beyond using diagnostics, shape leadership journeys that feel authentic to employees and that align with the organization's strategy. For example, redesign learning pathways so they emphasize technical mastery as well as the human and adaptive skills leaders now require—trust building, coaching, navigating ambiguity, and leading through change. DDI's research reveals that when development feels relevant and connected to both business goals and personal career aspirations, participation rates rise and talent pipelines deepen.

Overcome barriers

The challenges are not confined to a lack of training programs. They are deeply structural and human-centric. Companies tend to prioritize short-term performance over long-term readiness, often cutting leadership development when budgets tighten, notes Global Leadership Forecast 2025.

The report states that trust between employees and management is the foundation of leadership development, and when it's not present, learners are less likely to embrace feedback, coaching, or other development opportunities, which creates barriers for long-term growth. For instance, employees whose manager actively supports their development are 11 times more likely to trust their manager.

"These are your mentors, your coaches, your examples. If the existing team does not lead or manage by example, then people will notice," Lightfoot notes. "This often leads to a decline in productivity overall, higher turnover rates, and a toxic culture. We want people who want to keep growing and learning as our managers and leaders, not only to set the example, but also to continue to propel the organization forward."

Additionally, companies often award promotions based on technical output rather than leadership aptitude, creating bottlenecks when the individuals who receive a promotion fail to inspire or retain their teams.

Skills drift has also become a factor, with Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report warning that the demands of future leadership roles are evolving so quickly that yesterday's competencies are already becoming obsolete in a more technology-dominated world.

"Many companies still equate leadership potential with high performance in a current role. But leadership today requires adaptability, agility, empathy, and influence that are not always reflected in performance reviews," Jain says. "Going only by performance cannot be a metric for succession planning. Look at effort, emotional intelligence, comfort with ambiguity, and competitive edge that existing talent brings to the organization."

Generational preferences play their part as well. Workforce 2025 predicts that by 2033, almost one-third of people older than 70 will still be working, while Gen Alpha workers (those born after 2010) will start filling up junior roles. The younger employees will continue to seek growth and learning opportunities, but Deloitte found that they are less motivated by the idea of simply climbing a hierarchical ladder into leadership roles. Instead, meaning, autonomy, and flexibility often outweigh positional authority as career drivers, suggesting that companies must frame leadership opportunities to make them appealing.

"An effective pipeline starts with intention," Saunders explains. "Companies need to clearly define what leadership means in their culture, and then invest in developing those qualities early, long before someone steps into a formal leadership role." He recommends that employers offer stretch opportunities, mentorship, and coaching "that help employees see themselves as leaders in progress."

DDI's study advises companies to rethink how they train tomorrow's leaders because of what today's leaders are experiencing. They report feeling stressed, having a weakening sense of purpose, and inadequate development for their expanding responsibilities, so much so that 40 percent of leaders have considered "abandoning" their leadership roles entirely. As a result, DDI explains, the leadership pipeline isn't just strained, but it's facing a potential structural breakdown.

To reshape mindsets, Lightfoot says it takes executives who "live and breathe" leadership development. "This includes [offering] excellent onboarding and orientation programs, a robust portfolio of online training people can take at their own pace, mentors, external coaches, periodic in-person and virtual workshops to foster a greater sense of community, and performance plans that are designed around continuous learning and development," he states.

Employers can't simply view leadership pipelines as nice to have. Instead, they must create a system that is human-centric, adaptable, and appealing to younger workers who will inevitably take on leadership roles.

"Every feedback conversation, every stretch assignment, every recognition moment is part of shaping the pipeline," Jain states. "Leaders manage business outcomes along with leadership continuity."