By Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
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Abstract: This article examines organizational perspectives on bridging leadership development gaps in three key areas: change management, talent development, and diversity/inclusion. Executive surveys find that while disruptive change preparedness is a top priority, leadership programs often fail to adequately develop adaptability. To close this gap, companies emphasize developing agility, experimentation, and change-ready cultures. For talent development, identification must leverage broader strengths over past roles. Emerging leaders benefit from diverse mobility experiences through rotations and global assignments. Regarding diversity, representation is viewed as more than a social responsibility but a business imperative for accessing varied perspectives. Leaders recommend making inclusion central to mission/strategy and reevaluating sponsoring and sourcing approaches to give minority talent fair opportunities. Overall, holistically developing adaptive, diverse leaders through experiential learning better positions organizations to navigate complexity.
As organizations have grown increasingly complex in the 21st century, leadership development has become a strategic priority for navigating disruptive change and fostering innovation. However, research suggests there remains a gap between the skills and diversity that executives believe is needed versus what is currently represented at senior levels.
Today we will examine C-suite perspectives on bridging the leadership development gap through the lenses of change management, talent development, and diversity/inclusion.
Change Management: Preparing Leaders for Disruption
According to a global survey of over 1,300 C-level executives conducted by Heidrick & Struggles, CEOs and boards recognize that “preparing leaders to manage change” is one of the most important issues facing organizations (Heidrick & Struggles, 2018). However, less than half of respondents said their leadership programs adequately address this need. As disruptive forces like new market entrants, emerging technologies, and shifting consumer preferences continuously reshape industries, leaders must be adept at both navigating abrupt changes and building an organizational culture resilient to disruption over the long-term.
Prioritizing Adaptability and Agility
To bridge the leadership development gap surrounding change management, executives recommend prioritizing adaptability and agility in talent development programs. As Diane Gherson, former CHRO of IBM, notes: “In today's fast-moving world, the most important leadership quality is not technical expertise but rather the ability to adapt" (HBR, 2016). Rather than focusing solely on narrow functional or industry skills, development initiatives should cultivate leaders' capacity for growth mindsets, continuous learning, and embracing uncertainty with confidence.
At Danone, a global food-producing company facing disruption from nutrition/health trends, they have implemented leadership programs emphasizing agility, experimentation and intrapreneurship throughout all levels of the organization. Initiatives include rotational assignments across business units, “innovation bootcamps” where multi-disciplinary teams brainstorm solutions to challenges, and a corporate incubator to test new concepts. According to Danone's CHRO, “Preparing leaders for change means equipping them with the dexterity to constantly learn, unlearn and relearn while demonstrating progress” (HBR, 2016).
Building a Change-Ready Culture
While developing individual leader adaptability is critical, executives also stress the need to build a “change-ready” organizational culture where ambiguity and reinvention are the norm rather than the exception. As Sanjay Poonen, COO of VMware states: “The half-life of skills is getting shorter and shorter ...companies must constantly reinvent or face disruption.” At VMware, they foster a culture embracing change through transparent internal communications, talent mobility initiatives to spread new ideas, and reward/recognition programs acknowledging risk-taking and innovation (HBR, 2016).
To adequately equip leaders for disruption, development efforts should prioritize adaptability, agility, intrapreneurial mindsets, and cultivating cultures where reinvention and calculated risk-taking are institutionalized and celebrated. The next section will explore how organizations can enhance talent identification and development to meet evolving leadership needs.
Talent Development: Identifying and Growing the Next Generation
As talent pipelines shift to incorporate more diverse experiences and competencies, executives stress the need to reimagine leadership identification and development approaches. According to a Korn Ferry survey of 250 global organizations, over 75% of leaders believe they lack successors with the skills and experiences needed for future roles (Korn Ferry, 2018). There is a recognition that traditional, siloed development programs are insufficient for cultivating the multifaceted leaders of tomorrow.
Rethinking Identification Processes
To enhance emerging leader identification, companies must leverage more expansive criteria beyond proven past performance. As Lynda Gratton, professor at London Business School advises, “Successful organizations of the future will develop leaders based not just on what they have achieved in the past, but also on their potential to achieve great things in the future” (HBR, 2011). With this lens, less traditional indicators like courage, curiosity, resilience and adaptability take precedence over historically valued traits like seniority and experience in narrow functions.
Many companies are innovating new identification methods informed by predictive analytics and holistic assessments of strengths. For example, Schneider Electric utilizes cognitive/behavioral assessment tools and simulations to better predict leaders’ adaptability to change. This upfront identification allows them to customize development experiences accordingly to strengthen areas of future need versus past performance alone (CCL, 2019).
Embracing Development Mobility
Once identified, developing emerging leaders requires dynamic, cross-functional experiences beyond traditional on-the-job training or event-based programs. Executives advocate for mobility and “stretch” assignments through rotational moves, temporary special project roles, international postings and mentoring/coaching relationships. Developmental job experiences expose potential leaders to diverse challenges, competitive insights and innovation from other areas of the business.
At Walt Disney International, high potential leaders are selected each year for a Global Leadership Program involving placements in new business units and overseas assignments. The goal is to strengthen business acumen, cultural empathy and relationship-building skills through an intensive period of mobility. According to Disney’s CHRO, “This approach has better prepared our future leaders for complexity - whether geographic expansion, new ventures or organizational changes” (HBR, 2016).
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Representing the Communities Served
Executives agree that a failure to develop diverse leaders prevents organizations from truly understanding and serving the diverse customer populations that power growth. Yet according to McKinsey research, less than 5% of C-level positions in the US are held by racial/ethnic minorities (McKinsey, 2018). Lack of representation limits strategic perspectives and problem solving approaches.
Viewing Diversity as a Business Imperative
To enhance leadership diversity, executives advise viewing it not only as a moral responsibility but a business imperative. As Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei states, “The greatest predictor of a company's success is the diversity of its leadership...diverse teams are simply better at solving complex problems” (Anthropic, 2021). Where diversity has historically been addressed through compliance, inclusion must become a core aspect of an organization’s identity, strategy and brand.
At Google, leadership maintains a very public focus on diversity as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage, not just social responsibility. For example, Google publishes annual diversity reports and discloses representation targets/progress. They allocate dedicated recruiting resources to source from minority colleges/associations and programs incentivizing managers on improving diversity numbers have become standard practice (Google, 2022).
Reevaluating Sourcing and Sponsorship Approaches
In addition to strategy shifts, leadership development programs must evolve sourcing approaches, support structures and evaluation criteria to give minority talent equitable access to success. For example, Anthropic leverages AI to analyze recruiting patterns and root out potential biases. They also mandate sponsorship of at least one diverse candidate through senior leader mentorship (Anthropic, 2021).
At Intel, employee resource groups focused on specific demographic cohorts play an active role identifying high potential individuals from minority communities for senior roles traditionally lacking representation. Formal sponsorship programs then pair emerging leaders with C-level advocates who champion their career development through coaching, high visibility projects and advocacy during promotions (Intel, 2019).
Conclusion
Bridging the leadership development gap requires a multifaceted approach addressing change management, talent perspectives and diversity holistically as interconnected pillars of future-focused leadership. Individual leader adaptability, organizational reinforcement of reinvention and courageous problem solving, as well as diverse representation and perspectives must all become hallmarks of exemplary leadership.
When development recognizes complexity through dynamic, cross-functional experiences and talent assessment informed more by strengths than pedigree alone, organizations will better cultivate the strategic problem solvers demanded in today’s business landscape. And when company mission, values, strategy, and brand are united behind inclusion as a driver of competitive advantage rather than separate initiative—real progress toward equitable leadership can be realized.
If organizations commit to leadership development with the same discipline applied to strategies targeting profit margins or productivity metrics, they will be far better positioned to navigate uncertainty, capitalize on innovation and meet the needs of customers in ways truly reflective of societies served. By closing gaps in change management, talent and diversity - exemplary leadership will emerge fully equipped to solve today’s multifaceted challenges and those still unforeseen.
References
Gherson, D. (2016, October 3). How to cultivate more adaptable leaders. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/10/how-to-cultivate-more-adaptable-leaders
Gratton, L. (2011, September). Developing leaders the Disney way. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/09/developing-leaders-the-disney-way
Heidrick & Struggles. (2018). Global chief executive officer study. Heidrick & Struggles. https://www.heidrick.com/-/media/Publications-and-Reports/HS-2018-Global-CEO-Study.pdf
Korn Ferry. (2018). Succession management: Identifying high-potential leaders. Korn Ferry. https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/succession-management-identifying-high-potential-leaders
McKinsey & Company. (2018). Women in the workplace. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2018
Poonen, S. (2016, October 3). How to cultivate more adaptable leaders. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/10/how-to-cultivate-more-adaptable-leaders
Center for Creative Leadership. (2019). Developing adaptive leaders: Best practices from world-class organizations. Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/DevelopingAdaptiveLeaders.pdf
Google. (2022). Google diversity annual report 2022. Google. https://diversity.google/annual-report/
Intel. (2019). 2019 corporate responsibility report. Intel. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/corporate-responsibility/intel-corporate-responsibility-report.html
Amodei, D. (2021, July 16). Why diversity is critical to safe artificial intelligence. Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/blog/why-diversity-is-critical-to-safe-ai
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Rethinking Leadership Development for the 21st Century: C-Suite Perspectives on Change, Talent, and Representation. Human Capital Leadership Review, 12(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.12.4.1
