Overcoming Barriers to Accelerated Leadership Development
- Jaya Kashyap
- May 14
- 4 min read
Leadership development is a fundamental priority for organisations aiming to build a strong leadership pipeline. Yet, many businesses struggle with striking the right balance between taking risks on emerging leaders and ensuring business continuity. In an increasingly complex and volatile world, organisations that fail to accelerate leadership development risk stagnation and a lack of prepared successors for key roles.
In this blog, we explore how organisations can overcome the barriers to accelerated leadership development and create a robust strategy for grooming future-ready leaders.
The Challenge of Risk-Aversion in Leadership Development
Taking calculated risks on emerging leaders is often met with resistance from senior management. Business leaders tend to prefer performance over potential, seeking immediate results rather than long-term leadership investment. This tendency is reinforced by factors such as:
Short-term business priorities: Organisations focus on quarterly targets, making leaders hesitant to take chances on high-potential employees who may initially struggle in new roles.
Regulatory pressures: Compliance and risk management frameworks create environments where making mistakes is seen as undesirable.
Psychological biases: Studies from behavioral economics show that people experience loss aversion—preferring to avoid potential losses rather than seek equivalent gains. This mindset makes organisations reluctant to place unproven leaders in critical roles.
Hyperbolic discounting: Senior leaders often favor immediate, visible returns over long-term gains. The impact of an underperforming leader today seems more tangible than the consequences of failing to build a future leadership pipeline.
Despite these challenges, organisations that fail to develop leaders face significant long-term risks. A lack of experienced leadership talent can lead to business stagnation, low innovation, and difficulty navigating change.
The Business Case for Accelerated Leadership Development
Research shows that organisations need to be proactive in developing leadership capabilities. In a global survey of over 300 organisations, 85% of HR professionals expressed concern about current leadership capabilities, while only 40% believed their high-potential talent was prepared to meet future business needs.
Without an effective accelerated leadership development strategy, organisations risk:
Leadership gaps: Failing to identify and develop leaders early can leave key positions vacant, impacting business performance.
Loss of top talent: High-potential employees are more likely to leave if they don’t see clear career progression opportunities.
Limited innovation: Emerging leaders bring fresh perspectives and agility to organisations. A reluctance to place them in stretch roles stifles innovation and growth.
To overcome these barriers, organisations must foster a culture that embraces calculated risk-taking in leadership development.
Strategies to Overcome Leadership Development Barriers
1. Assign the Right Roles for Accelerated Development
Organisations can reduce the risks of accelerated leadership development by strategically assigning emerging leaders to stretch roles. This can be achieved by:
Starting small: Assigning high-potential employees to smaller business units or emerging markets before giving them high-stakes leadership roles.
Using well-established roles: Placing emerging leaders in established positions with clear success criteria and support networks.
Implementing temporary assignments: Short-term leadership placements allow high-potential employees to test their capabilities without permanent risk.
2. Identifying the Right Candidates
Not all employees are suited for accelerated leadership development. Organisations must ensure that high-potential employees possess key leadership traits, including:
Learning agility: The ability to adapt, acquire new skills, and apply knowledge effectively.
Drive and resilience: Motivation to take on new challenges and overcome setbacks.
Emergent leadership: The ability to influence and inspire others.
Analytical skills: The capacity to make informed decisions in uncertain environments.
Leadership development assessments, psychometric testing, and real-world evaluations (e.g., performance in previous stretch assignments) can help organisations select the right candidates for acceleration.
3. Balancing Performance and Potential
Many organisations mistakenly assess leadership potential by evaluating employees based on current performance rather than their ability to develop into senior roles. However, performance and potential are distinct:
High performers excel in their current roles but may not possess the skills to take on broader leadership responsibilities.
High potentials demonstrate the ability to grow and succeed in more complex roles, even if they have not yet developed all the necessary competencies.
By focusing on predictive indicators such as adaptability, decision-making skills, and the ability to learn from experience, organisations can more accurately identify future leaders.
4. Creating a Culture that Supports Leadership Development
Organisational culture plays a critical role in leadership acceleration. To build a culture that fosters development, organisations should:
Encourage risk-taking: Leadership must promote an environment where taking calculated risks is rewarded rather than punished.
Normalize learning from failure: Failed leadership experiments should be treated as learning opportunities rather than career-ending events.
Provide ongoing feedback: Regular coaching and mentorship ensure that emerging leaders receive the support they need to succeed.
5. Educating and Incentivizing Senior Leaders
Senior leaders must be engaged in the process of accelerated leadership development. Strategies to achieve this include:
Highlighting success stories: Showcasing examples of emerging leaders who have thrived in stretch roles can build confidence in the acceleration process.
Incentivizing leadership development: Recognizing and rewarding senior leaders who take risks on high-potential employees can shift mindsets.
Shifting the leadership narrative: Senior leaders must understand that leadership success is about experience, not just tenure. Careers today are built on accelerated development rather than traditional career timelines.
6. Monitoring and Evaluating Leadership Development Efforts
Effective leadership acceleration requires continuous monitoring and evaluation. Organisations should:
Conduct regular check-ins: One-on-one coaching and feedback sessions help emerging leaders stay on track.
Review failed assignments: Analyzing why an acceleration effort didn’t work can help refine future leadership development strategies.
Look for patterns: Organisations should track leadership development trends to identify systemic barriers and opportunities for improvement.
7. Encouraging Women in Leadership Development
Women often face additional barriers to leadership acceleration, including bias in promotion decisions and fewer stretch opportunities. To address this, organisations can:
Implement women-specific leadership programmes: Structured development initiatives tailored for women can help bridge the gender gap.
Provide mentorship and sponsorship: Connecting emerging women leaders with senior executives can accelerate their growth.
Challenge traditional promotion timelines: Organisations should question whether women are being held back due to outdated perceptions of readiness.
For more insights on women in leadership programmes, explore Esendia's leadership development initiatives.
Conclusion: A New Era of Leadership Development
Overcoming barriers to accelerated leadership development requires organisations to rethink their approach to talent management. By balancing risk with opportunity, performance with potential, and short-term results with long-term leadership needs, organisations can create a sustainable leadership pipeline.
At Esendia, we specialise in designing leadership development training and women in leadership programmes that empower organisations to build their future leaders.
To learn more, explore our latest research on key leadership experiences and our guide on stretch assignments.
By taking proactive steps today, businesses can ensure they have the bold, capable leaders needed to navigate tomorrow’s challenges.
