Leadership Investment is Growing. Is the Impact?

The State of Leadership: Role Models and Reality

Leadership is in crisis. Everyone knows who Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, or Elon Musk are. When we discuss the type of leaders we are exposed to, or who serves as an example, these are the names that often surface during training sessions. They are mentioned in a negative context. Yet, rarely has anyone heard of Jacinda Ardern. This is a shame, because there is so much to learn from her style of leadership, even in business, despite her being a politician.

Participants often mention the good leaders within their own organizations, too. The expression on their faces changes as they speak; you can see gratitude and a genuine desire to copy all the good lessons they learn. "Steal with pride" is absolutely applicable here.

Have leaders lost their compass, and how can the leadership development industry better guide them?

The Paradox of Investment: Growth vs. Effectiveness

For decades, billions have been invested in leader development. For instance, according to Global Insight Services, the Leadership Development Program Market is anticipated to expand from $83.2 billion in 2024 to $218.9 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of approximately 10.2%. According to Josh Bersin, the total corporate learning industry is currently $340 billion in size, but poised for disruption.

So, how is this going to change? What are we going to alter in the way we develop people, especially those who impact everyone else - our leaders? Both sources suggest that leadership development is not going to die. It will grow, but the crucial question remains: how?

Numerous studies show that leaders are currently at the edge of burnout, and together with everyone else, the people they influence with their leadership competencies (and incompetencies), they themselves are becoming less engaged. According to Gallup, Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% in 2024. This drop marks the most significant factor in the global decline of engagement recorded in repeated annual surveys over the past 15 years, outside of a COVID year.

The Strategic Mandate: AI, Uncertainty, and Recalibration

The pressure for change is coming directly from the C-suite. According to SHRM's 2025 Executive Summary on CHRO Priorities and Perspectives, 51% of CHROs identified leadership and manager development as top priorities. This isn’t just a trend; it's a wake-up call for organizations to recalibrate their leadership strategies for the future.

Last week, Gartner published their annual 2026 Top Priorities for CHROs survey. Unsurprisingly, two priorities are directly linked to AI:

• Priority 1: Harness AI to revolutionize HR.

• Priority 2: Shape work in the human-machine era.

However, a third priority is highly relevant, focusing directly on the required direction for leader development: Priority 3: Mobilize leaders for growth in an uncertain world. Gartner’s research suggests that leaders who manage to "routinize change" will achieve a 3X higher adoption rate of change initiatives across the organization. The key activities proposed include resetting performance expectations for leaders, defining how they will develop towards these new standards, and developing both emotional intelligence and change management skills.

Designing the Transformation: From Anomaly to Impact

The challenge that societal and business development poses to leaders is immense. Much has been invested in their development, and much more will follow. How this investment is utilized is a vital question, not only for business but for people's lives and society itself.

As one quote from SHRM’s Leadership: 2030 article noted: "The 70 years of stable systems we grew up with were an anomaly, and the messiness we're seeing today is much more what 'normal' looks like if you get outside our direct lived experience." This statement stayed with me long after I read it.

The SHRM motto is "Better workplaces, better world." This is what motivates my work with leaders. I've heard from them, and experienced myself when going through similar programs (academies, coaching, 360s, etc.), that they become better people, not just at work, but generally, and not just for others, but for themselves. Building better leaders for people and organizations is one way we can make the world better.

Leadership programs that make a tangible impact are those that are embedded into the flow of work, personalized, spread out over time, and have systemic support. These are truly transformational leadership programs. One of the most critical elements is managing the time gap between an intensive learning intervention and the first step of application. According to Gartner, when this time gap in leadership development is left unchecked, it wastes the billions of dollars mentioned earlier.

I have had the opportunity to track the development of leaders before and years after such programs. Besides transforming their behavior at work, these programs influenced them holistically. Some leaders shared that it was a life-changing experience because it shifted their mindset and behavior towards their environment generally, not just in the workplace. 

That is why I built the Leadership Guild - to consolidate everything I know and everything I have learned over 20 years of developing leaders.