Top trends in leadership development

Amid ongoing economic uncertainty and artificial intelligence-related changes, HR teams say they’re shifting their talent strategies to stay ahead, according to a report from DDI, a leadership company.

Half of CHROs ranked internal talent development as their top business priority, followed by building a high-performance culture. Hiring the right people into the organization has dropped to the bottom of the list, with only 33% calling it a priority right now.

Succession management remains key, with only 20% of HR leaders saying they have leaders ready to fill their critical business leadership roles. On average, internal candidates could fill only 49% of these positions immediately, they said.

“Leadership is becoming a tougher job each day, and CHROs are uniquely positioned to help leaders rise to the challenge,” said Tacy Byham, CEO of DDI. “While organizations can’t control the deluge of external challenges they face this year, strategic HR executives can build resilience by using trusted people analytics to forecast needs, build their bench and reinvigorate the next generation of leaders.”

In a survey of 2,185 HR pros, 86% said they anticipate their organization needing to develop new leadership skills and capabilities during the next five years. However, most HR leaders said measuring success was their biggest challenge when implementing leadership development programs.

Two-thirds of HR pros said their organization uses online learning libraries, which had the lowest ROI rating of any learning and development method. On the other hand, HR pros who use assessments to understand leaders’ strengths and development needs tended to report strong ROI.

DDI recommended structured and scalable succession systems, finding that successful internal promotions are 3.7 times more likely when leaders participate in cohort-based leadership development programs, 2.6 times more likely when leaders receive frequent coaching from managers and 1.6 times more likely when assessments are used to inform leadership selection.

“HR is under increased scrutiny to demonstrate ROI, as organizations navigate economic uncertainty, evolving talent needs and AI change management challenges,” said Stephanie Neal, director of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research. “CHROs are making a pivotal shift to develop talent capabilities within.”

HR pros may feel stuck in a Catch-22 when trying to identify and upskill top talent but training is lower on their organization’s priority list. Training as a top priority dropped from 12% in 2024 to 5% in 2025, according to HR Dive’s Identity of HR survey.

Skills-based strategies such as skills mapping and skills-based rewards programs can close talent gaps, according to a Mercer report. An increasing number of HR leaders said they’ve established a skills library, identified the most critical skills across departments and mapped skills to individual roles or employees.

Top performers are leaving their roles amid stalled career mobility, with promotions down in 10 of 11 industries and internal hiring down by 8%, according to a report from Workday.

Experienced employees also reported anxiety and disconnection due to artificial intelligence in the workplace — and unclear strategies for the future.

“AI may be rewriting the rules of work, but it cannot replace the value of engaged, motivated people,” Ashley Goldsmith, chief people officer at Workday, said in a statement. “The companies that succeed will retain top talent, create meaningful growth opportunities and have a clear strategy for human-AI partnership that drives results.”

Based on Workday data and surveys of more than 1,700 business leaders and nearly 1,000 job seekers, top performers departed “with increasing alarm” in about three-quarters of industries in 2024, with all industries seeing higher attrition rates.

In addition, recruitment has become tougher, as more than half of open roles now take longer than 30 days to fill and a quarter take more than 60 days.

High performers reported a lack of growth and career advancement, leading to lower engagement. Clear career pathways and transparent communication can help retain top talent amid organizational change, the report found.

Employers also need human-centered AI strategies, Workday said, particularly as 44% of employees reported negative comments about AI and strategy in internal surveys. Leaders may be disconnected from front-line workers, the report found, which could erode trust and engagement.

HR also should be careful not to overlook middle-age and mid-career employees who need career growth and development, according to a Perceptyx report. In 2025, learning and development opportunities are especially important for retention and engagement, the report found.

Although most organizations offer a manager development program, more than 90% say they lack time to participate, according to a report from the Association for Talent Development.

In addition, 63% said being a manager is more difficult than they anticipated, and more than half said their organization provided little or no training to prepare, the report found.

“In order to perform at the highest level, managers need training that equips them with the skills to succeed and to make sure their employees succeed,” ATD reported.

In a survey of 409 talent development professionals, respondents said it’s important for their managers to be proficient in communication, performance management and employee feedback. In particular, providing feedback was a major focal point of manager development training, the survey found.

While organizations used different training methods and techniques, high-performing organizations were more likely to use pre- and post-training activities, as well as bite-sized learning options. 

Among the 53% that offered post-training activities, they most commonly provided access to a resource library on manager skills. These libraries tended to include articles, job aids, videos and other tools to reinforce learning.

In addition, 62% of organizations said they use coaching or mentorship when training managers to bolster skills, the report found.

Since manager performance is tied to team performance, managers need the right people management skills to lead their teams. However, managers may not have these skills and need leadership training to succeed, particularly for conflict management, culture building and ethical decision-making, various studies have shown.

Training can also bolster engagement, which has fallen dramatically among managers, especially for women and those under age 35, according to a Gallup report. In particular, Gallup suggested teaching managers how to be better coaches — and to receive coaching themselves. Manager training improved manager thriving, Gallup found, which grew even more if a manager had someone to encourage their ongoing development.

The vast majority of executives and workers in the technology industry claim to know more about generative artificial intelligence tools than they actually do, according to an April 2 report from Pluralsight, a technology workforce development company.

Paradoxes around workplace AI abound as well, the report found. Although 95% of tech executives said having AI skills is crucial for job security, 61% of tech workers said using AI tools at work is seen as “lazy” at their company.

“In addition to the systemic misrepresentation of AI knowledge, Pluralsight also found that AI is complicating perceptions about how work is getting done,” Chris McClellen, chief product and technology officer at Pluralsight, said in a statement. 

In a survey of 1,200 technology executives and workers in the U.S. and U.K., 91% of C-suite executives and 79% of workers admitted they’ve pretended to know more about AI at work than they actually do.

About 90% of workers said losing their role to AI was at least somewhat likely, and they’re more afraid of being replaced by AI now than they were a year ago, Pluralsight said.

In addition, half of employers said AI skills were “highly preferred” when looking for talent, and 20% said they were “mandatory.” About 84% of companies said they’d likely replace or outsource talent to support AI initiatives that lack internal talent.

In response, tech workers feel the need to upskill in both AI and other areas, the report found. About 91% said they’re concerned about their skills becoming obsolete due to AI, up from 74% in the 2024 survey. 

Other survey results have similarly indicated that workers have AI confidence but no training to back it up, which can lead to ethical and security-related problems, according to a Multiverse report. While investing in AI tools, employers should also develop standardized AI skills assessments and increase investment in AI training at all levels, Multiverse recommended.

But all is not rosy in the tech transformation. Amid AI adoption, C-suite leaders are grappling with conflict and silos within their organizations, according to a Writer report. About 1 in 3 employees are pushing back by refusing to use AI tools or skipping AI-related training, the report found.

C-suite executives are looking for leadership support in 2025 as they face increasing levels of stress, burnout and turnover, according to a report from LHH, a talent solutions provider and global business unit of the Adecco Group.

More than 40% of leaders reported a turnover of more than half of their leadership team during the past year. That rises to 73% in sales, media and marketing.

As a result, 75% said they need additional leadership assistance to manage their responsibilities effectively. 

In this uncertain business environment, workers are leaning on leadership more heavily, John Morgan, president of LHH’s career transition and mobility and leadership development businesses, said in a statement.

“Our research found that in the face of this pressure, many leaders are feeling unprepared, leading to a crisis of confidence,” Morgan said. “This underscores a vital need for organizations to play an active role in facilitating leadership success and strengthening C-suite pipelines, as executives are eager for support and seeking opportunities to learn and grow.”

In the survey of 2,675 C-suite executives across 10 countries, 56% reported burnout, which has increased from 52% in 2023. Gen X and millennial leaders reported even higher rates, citing stressors linked to turnover, inflation and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence tools.

Executives named team effectiveness as the top internal leadership challenge, with 26% pointing to a lack of team cohesion and 25% reporting misalignment between critical roles and the people filling them.

In addition, 33% of new leaders said they lacked confidence in their personal ability to succeed in their roles, and 31% said they don’t feel confident in their leadership team’s ability to perform.

As more leaders leave, CHROs are struggling to stop the exodus of C-suite members, according to a Gartner report. However, few C-suite executives believe their CHRO effectively manages the tension between their C-suite members.

As companies increasingly focus on retention, CHROs are playing a larger role in guiding the C-suite, according to an iCIMS report. Most CHROs said internal mobility has become a major priority for their organization, and more than a third said they’re investing in new tools to support internal mobility initiatives. 

Measuring the effectiveness of learning and development programs is an ongoing challenge in the HR space, but employers must be wary of using that as an excuse to invest in leadership programs that are “too general or do not sufficiently apply to their unique circumstances,” according to an updated resource from McLean & Co.

Such an approach can make it difficult for leaders to actually apply their training, the report said.

To build a solid and effective leadership training program, employers should start by establishing what gaps currently exist in leadership development and the competencies the company wants to build.

Then, an employer can craft the program with proper mapping of activities and measurements of success and define how it will be maintained in the future.

Involving senior leaders as “change champions” can help in the program development process, McLean added, noting that “communications from senior leaders are particularly impactful when supported by an empowered HR organization.”

Notably, one leadership skill that may be lacking is communication, according to research published in November by the Association for Talent Development — and communication skills are considered critical for that employee group, according to talent development professionals surveyed.

That survey did note that training leaders costs more than training employees more broadly.

Still, leader development is a “top priority” for HR, Gartner said in an October analysis, partly because company leaders and managers “are not equipped to lead change,” the firm said. However, nearly half of managers surveyed by TalentLMS said their company isn’t doing enough to train and cultivate leaders — with many saying leadership training is neglected.