Business markets can feel unrecognizable. The influx of AI, different generations leaving and entering the workforce, trade and tariff wars, political power swings, and products that used to work are becoming obsolete.

But the one constant?

Regardless of industry or organization, the quality of leadership is the one factor that is recognizable. Said differently, organizations can’t manage their way around this kind of change, they must be led through it.

In the not-so-distant past, every critical decision was left to the CEO or Management Team. In today’s rapid change environment, this practice will be detrimental to an organization’s existence. World-class organizations that are highly effective at overcoming adverse conditions have leaders at every level, not just at the top, and it’s leading to a silent rebirth of leadership development in organizations.

One world-class leader doesn’t make a world-class organization.

Unfortunately, most organizations believe they have leaders at every level because they are designed hierarchically. But, just because you have managers doesn’t mean you have leaders.

Instead of going into all the differences between managers and leaders, let’s get on the same page about why leadership development is making a comeback in organizations.

Why Some Companies Don’t Invest in Leadership Development

Some organizations don’t invest in leadership development because they opt for a replace vs develop strategy. They get a short cut by hiring more effective leaders. This is often a much more expensive pathway, but it can he highly effective. This tends to be a common approach in small or venture backed start-ups.

The development strategy requires training that can be expensive, time-consuming, and ineffective.

If that weren’t enough, organizations can spend a lot of time, money, and energy to help develop someone, and they could leave. I love the CFO to CEO-conversation around this:

CFO Asks CEO: “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

Richard Branson backed this up by saying, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.” While Branson is right, every organization would be more effective if professionals willingly invested in themselves as leaders instead of relying on their company.

Unfortunately, people avoid leadership development because there isn’t a clear and guaranteed outcome like money or a promotion.

Growth Takes Time and Action

The less talked about reason organizations don’t invest in their people is they aren’t patient, and they can’t control the outcome. The world has become so short-term focused, we forget that growth takes time. As much as we want to become great at anything, confidence requires repetition. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut other than training, effort, and coaching, and even then, the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Growth not only takes time, but it also takes action. Too often, leaders forget that growth isn’t a goal, it’s a byproduct of what happens when we take action.

Growth isn’t a goal, it’s a byproduct of what happens when we take action.

I constantly have to remind myself and others that outstanding leadership doesn’t always show up in short-term results, but its impact is always realized in the long term in the people that interacted with a world-class leader.

Participate in the Rebirth of Leadership

If you want to participate in the rebirth of leadership development, you could look for big transformation. Still, you could also begin by adopting small strategies like promoting the right people into leadership positions and sharing leadership principles.

Promote and Hire the Right People

Most managers are set up to struggle. They were promoted because they were a good individual contributor and left to figure the leadership thing out on their own, causing 60% of new leaders to fail within 18 months.

Evaluate the most important attributes before promoting or hiring people:

• Integrity & Character
• Teaching & Coaching
• Drive & Initiative
• Conflict & Results

Share Leadership Principles

A principle is a concisely worded statement of truth that transcends circumstances. If you want to grow leaders, you must give them principles to remember so they can apply them.  Here are a few of my favorites from Accelerate Leadership.

• You never have to ask permission to take responsibility
• What leaders tolerate, they encourage
• Someone’s best performance tomorrow requires personalized coaching today

The best part is it doesn’t take a PHD to capture and share leadership principles. It just takes someone to care and have courage to express them.

Closing

All kinds of strategies dramatically improve the effectiveness of leadership development programs. Regardless of what you or your organization chooses, remember that one world-class leader doesn’t make a world-class organization. What’s required is leaders at every level.

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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.