• Published April 16, 2024
  • 2 Minute Read
WHITE PAPER

4 Ways That Scaling Leadership Development Powers Engagement, Retention, and ROI

Published April 16, 2024
Woman smiling thinking about the benefits of leadership development and how it powers engagement and retention white paper

The Benefits of Leadership Development

Our white paper explores what research suggests are the direct benefits of leadership development (i.e., program-specific outcomes) and the indirect benefits of development, including increased employee engagement and attractiveness to potential employees. It outlines 4 key leadership development benefits that have emerged from both our own and other research, noting that investments in leadership development:

  1. Facilitate organizational alignment,
  2. Enhance the organization’s change readiness,
  3. Promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and
  4. Strengthen leadership pipelines.

Creating Competitive Leadership Advantage

When implemented effectively and comprehensively, leadership development has the potential to grow individuals and transform an entire organization from being one that merely meets its objectives into one that excels.

That’s why we say that one of the key benefits of leadership development is also simply that it creates competitive leadership advantage. And having a competitive leadership advantage not only raises the organization’s level of leadership capacity, developing a healthy leadership pipeline for the future, but also enables organizational agility, which is essential in today’s era of constant disruption.

One of the most critical drivers of organizational success in adapting to change is effective leadership at all levels — not just at the top.

To create the engagement and productivity required for this level of performance, leaders need to inspire others, drive innovation, collaborate across boundaries, and create an environment of psychological safety and inclusion. But these leadership skills don’t simply emerge and spread throughout the organization on their own. It takes focused effort and intentional strategy to optimize the leadership talent organizations need today and in the future.

Building these needed skills, from the top to the bottom of your organization, can feel like an impossible task. How can you possibly get quality development into the hands of all employees to fully leverage the benefits of leadership development?

The answer is by implementing a leadership development initiative that can be scaled. A scalable leadership development program is one that can easily be adapted and executed across an organization, regardless of its size or structure. A scalable development program unlocks leadership development’s benefits and creates significant competitive leadership advantage.

Download our white paper today to learn the many benefits of leadership development and how to scale it to start building a stronger talent pipeline at your organization.

Download White Paper

Download White Paper

Download this paper to learn more about what research has identified are the direct and indirect benefits of leadership development, and how scaling development can create significant competitive leadership advantage.

  • Published April 16, 2024
  • 2 Minute Read

Written by

Stephen Jeong
Stephen Jeong, PhD
Senior People Scientist

Stephen is a former U.S. Naval Nuclear Electrical Technician turned industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologist. He specializes in people and organizational measurement, leading-edge leader analytics, and the design and validation of new assessment products and services aimed at improving organizational performance.

Stephen is a former U.S. Naval Nuclear Electrical Technician turned industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologist. He specializes in people and organizational measurement, leading-edge leader analytics, and the design and validation of new assessment products and services aimed at improving organizational performance.

Based on Research by

Stephen Jeong
Stephen Jeong, PhD
Senior People Scientist

Stephen is a former U.S. Naval Nuclear Electrical Technician turned industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologist. He specializes in people and organizational measurement, leading-edge leader analytics, and the design and validation of new assessment products and services aimed at improving organizational performance.

Stephen is a former U.S. Naval Nuclear Electrical Technician turned industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologist. He specializes in people and organizational measurement, leading-edge leader analytics, and the design and validation of new assessment products and services aimed at improving organizational performance.

Heather Champion
Heather Champion, PhD
Manager, Insights & Impact Services

Heather works with CCL staff, global clients, and external evaluators to design and conduct customized needs assessments (discovery) and evaluations for our programs, products, and services. This work includes identifying organizational and leadership needs, articulating outcomes, selecting the most appropriate methods for evaluation, reporting findings, and partnering with key stakeholders to discern actionable insights.

Heather works with CCL staff, global clients, and external evaluators to design and conduct customized needs assessments (discovery) and evaluations for our programs, products, and services. This work includes identifying organizational and leadership needs, articulating outcomes, selecting the most appropriate methods for evaluation, reporting findings, and partnering with key stakeholders to discern actionable insights.

Sarah Stawiski
Sarah Stawiski, PhD
Director, Insights & Impact Group

With more than 15 years of experience conducting applied research and program evaluation, Sarah leads a team that uses data to improve programs and show evidence of impact with a goal of helping us advance our mission and achieve greater results. She has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to several books on topics including evaluation of leadership development, generational differences in the workplace, shared group cognition, ethical decision making, and bias in the workplace.

With more than 15 years of experience conducting applied research and program evaluation, Sarah leads a team that uses data to improve programs and show evidence of impact with a goal of helping us advance our mission and achieve greater results. She has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to several books on topics including evaluation of leadership development, generational differences in the workplace, shared group cognition, ethical decision making, and bias in the workplace.

Sol Bukin
Sol Bukin, MS
Senior Analyst

Sol has extensive experience in analyzing data to solve workforce challenges. She manages many aspects of our leadership programs’ standardized data collection and reporting processes. She also works on custom client evaluation work and other projects led by Leadership Research & Analytics.

Sol has extensive experience in analyzing data to solve workforce challenges. She manages many aspects of our leadership programs’ standardized data collection and reporting processes. She also works on custom client evaluation work and other projects led by Leadership Research & Analytics.

What to Explore Next

Webinar
How To Create Leadership Competitive Advantage

Watch this webinar to learn how making leadership development accessible to all employees leads to leadership competitive advantage for your organization.

Leading Effectively Article
Focused on Improving Employee Engagement? Pay Attention to These 4 Factors

Strengthening these 4 areas of employee engagement — starting with the effectiveness of your frontline managers, your largest population of people leaders — makes a huge difference for retention.

Leading Effectively Article
What Is Leadership?

Ever wonder the meaning of leadership? Based on our decades of research, we define leadership as a social process that enables individuals to achieve collective results.

Leading Effectively Article
Soft Skill Development: The People Skills Needed for Success at Each Leader Level

Organizations that prioritize soft skill development create stronger cultures. Learn the specific people skills our research has found are needed at each leader level, and how to develop them.

Leading Effectively Article
5 Characteristics of a Successful Leadership Development Strategy & Approach

Our research explored how much organizations invest in leadership development. Learn 5 factors HR executives say are part of a successful and effective leadership development strategy.

Related Solutions

CCL Regional Headquarters

AMERICAS

+1 336 545 2810
ccl.org

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA

+32 (0) 2 679 09 10
ccl.org/emea

ASIA-PACIFIC, INDIA, GREATER CHINA

+65 6854 6000
ccl.org/apac

About CCL

At the Center for Creative Leadership, our drive to create a ripple effect of positive change underpins everything we do. For 50+ years, we've pioneered leadership development solutions for everyone from frontline workers to global CEOs. Consistently ranked among the world's top providers of executive education, our research-based programs and solutions inspire individuals in organizations across the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — to ignite remarkable transformations.