According to McKinsey research, 75% of organizations rate leadership development as a top priority, yet fewer than 10% say their programs deliver strong business results.
The gap isn’t a content problem, it’s a design problem. Leadership development fails when it’s treated as a program belonging to another function rather than a core responsibility woven into every leader’s daily work.
Leadership Development as a Program
Event-based development typically pulls people away from their work to attend a course, often alongside colleagues from different functions and levels. Participants frequently return energized — and then watch that energy fade as they re-enter environments where managers, norms, and expectations haven’t shifted. Without a changed context, changed behavior rarely follows.
Timing compounds the problem. A strategy development course delivered months before or after the organization actually updates its strategy misses the window when learning would stick. And even well-timed content doesn’t account for the cultural nuance of applying something new within a specific team.
Ultimately, knowledge is consolidated through experience. Application within a real work setting embeds concepts far more effectively than any classroom can. Development exercised inside the work environment is simply more effective and more likely to translate.
What Is Embedded Leadership Development?
Embedded development means applying leadership growth through work, not alongside it.
Three attributes signal that development is truly embedded:
- It’s visible in daily activities, decisions, and meetings — not reserved for designated learning events.
- It’s expected of everyone with leadership interest, not just high-potentials or those who are struggling.
- Progress is discussed openly and collectively, not confined to a single private mentoring conversation.
A good example: a team that debriefs after every significant project or meaningful mistake. Mistakes are among the richest sources of learning available. They should not stay hidden or make people feel ashamed. When handled well, they become valuable opportunities to learn from, not something people need to bury.
How to Embed Leadership Development
1. Make it a leadership expectation.
Leaders must treat development as a core responsibility: not optional, not delegated to HR. They embrace it for themselves and actively support the growth of every team member with leadership interest.
2. Build psychological safety.
Development only flourishes where critical thinking, open communication, and fearless, respectful challenge are genuinely welcome. Leaders create that environment through their own behavior by being the first to admit what they don’t know and the first to invite disagreement. They ask others for input and are the last to share their opinions.
3. Build reflection into the rhythm of work.
After-action reviews, project debriefs, and consistent individual and team reflection become standard practice. “What went wrong?” gives way to “What did we learn?” and “What would we do differently?” The shift in language signals a shift in culture.
4. Formalize multi-source development support.
Developing leaders deserve feedback from more than one perspective. Peers, cross-functional colleagues, supporting functions, and even direct reports can all contribute to identifying growth opportunities and strengths. Leaders need to facilitate this feedback and share it with developees. They should feel like a dialogue, not an evaluation. And these conversations should happen regularly — at minimum quarterly, and especially following projects or activities designed to stretch the individual.
5. Use real work as the development vehicle.
The data gathered through multi-source feedback can then directly inform which projects and activities a developing leader takes on. These assignments target growth areas, leverage strengths, and connect to what they care about. Everyday work that matters to the organization then doubles as leadership development. It also makes growth visible and shared, giving the whole team a stake in each person’s development.
Beware the Measurement Trap
Organizations measure what’s easy: training hours, completion rates, performance scores. What actually matters is harder to quantify — and more important. Has self-awareness grown? Are decisions better? Do they work more effectively with others, build followership, and include more voices?
The developer and developee should discuss these dimensions openly so both stay aligned on the same growth goals. Putting a number on them and ranking people against each other creates unhealthy competition that works directly against the vulnerability, collaboration (and the culture) that development requires.
The Long Game
A genuine leadership development culture takes time to build and longer to engrain. Organizations that get it right don’t have better programs, they have better conversations. They grow leadership capability organically, in everyone, continuously.
Embedded development doesn’t start and stop, it’s always present. And it multiplies the organization’s and each individual’s capacity to absorb any challenge or crisis that comes its way.
What practice could you start this week that treats development as a way of working rather than a destination?
Author Bio:
After leading teams of various sizes for 29 years, I served as a Leadership
Development Program Manager for 4 years. In that capacity, I reviewed research on what makes leadership development programs effective and applied those learnings in a new program that I created called HUMan-Based Leadership development (HUM-B- LE). This program was successfully applied across 5 operations leadership teams and ultimately resulted in a measurable improvement in culture for the broader team of employees.
I earned my BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Colorado. In 2018 I earned a Certified Professional Coach designation and use these skills in support of helping leaders improve. I enjoy helping leaders grow a culture of psychological safety and employee engagement. Research demonstrates that these attributes correlate with high performance and improved business results. My base purpose is to make a difference in the lives of employees by helping leaders create these environments.
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