When I look at the state of leadership development today, I believe that we are on the cusp of a revolution. After speaking with 158 L&D professionals across industries for our latest study, one thing became very clear: despite significant investment, most organizations don’t feel their leadership programs are delivering what leaders actually need. Many leaders are overwhelmed, anxious, and stretched thin. Only 40% of the practitioners we surveyed said they were even “somewhat happy” with their leadership development outcomes. That should be a wake-up call for all of us.
In this moment of uncertainty and rapid technological change, leadership development can no longer be a static set of workshops or a content repository. It has to be a living system that supports real humans, doing difficult and very human work.
Based on the research and on countless conversations in our Offbeat community, here are the five leadership trends I believe will shape leadership development in 2026.
1. Strategy
One of the biggest misses I see is when leadership development operates in parallel to the business instead of serving it. If your company is focused on (for example) revenue growth, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, or AI transformation, those priorities must have a visible through-line in the leadership experiences you design. Leaders shouldn’t have to guess why a program matters; the connection should be obvious.
AI deserves special attention. As one of our study participants shared, leaders in the near future won’t only manage people — they’ll manage AI systems as part of their teams. But rather than pushing leaders to “use AI everywhere,” we need to help them slow down, map their workflows, and identify where AI brings value and where human judgment still leads. The next frontier of leadership capability isn’t technical mastery of tools; it’s the ability to make thoughtful choices about when technology should augment, accelerate, or stay out of the way of meaningful work.
2. Architecture
Many organizations invest heavily in leadership principles, but then fail to embed them into the actual moments that matter — hiring, performance reviews, promotions, and cross-team interactions. In 2026, we need to bring those principles into the operational fabric of our organizations.
Psychological safety is another area that deserves much more attention. We talk constantly about creating psychological safety for teams, but rarely about creating it for leaders themselves. It’s becoming a widely recognised pattern that many leaders are operating under heightened pressure, making it harder to role-model curiosity, empathy, and courage.
If we want leaders to create healthy cultures, we must first create environments where they also feel safe enough to speak openly about their struggles, ask for help, and experiment without fear.
Collaboration is another overlooked theme. Most leadership programs still focus on content delivery. But with AI making content more accessible than ever, what leaders need most are spaces to connect across functions, understand the broader system, and learn from one another’s lived experience. Cross-departmental collaboration is suffering in many companies, and the best way to improve it is to design intentional forums where people can build relationships, not just absorb frameworks.
3. Design
One of the most surprising findings from the research was how little leaders are involved in designing their own development experiences. Many L&D teams send out a survey or conduct a few interviews, but true co-creation is still rare. That’s a missed opportunity, because when people help build something, they naturally value it more. I often reference the “IKEA effect” here — we tend to care more about what we’ve had a hand in building.
Co-creation doesn’t need to be complicated. Even a quarterly design session where leaders help identify priorities, test prototypes, or offer honest feedback can dramatically increase relevance and engagement. And beyond co-designing the content, we also need to support the emotional reality of becoming a leader. Leadership is a deeply human role, filled with identity shifts, uncertainty, and personal discomfort. In my previous company, our L&D and HR teams offered open-door support to new leaders — a place to talk through challenges, fears, and confusing moments. It made a measurable difference in how confident they felt early in their journey, and I believe far more organizations should embed this kind of emotional scaffolding.
4. Delivery
The “build it and they will come” mentality no longer works. Leaders are overwhelmed, and attention is fragmented. Simply announcing a leadership program, no matter how brilliantly designed, is not enough to drive participation.
Instead of focusing on what the program offers, focus on what leaders are actually dealing with. Are they exhausted? Preparing for difficult conversations? Struggling to communicate strategy? Feeling isolated? When we frame learning around real problems, engagement increases dramatically.
Champions are another powerful lever. Programs spread more effectively when leaders hear about them from peers rather than from L&D. Some of the most successful examples I’ve seen involve executives or founders openly participating in peer learning groups. When the most senior people in the organization model vulnerability and curiosity, it sends a message that learning is not a remedial activity, it’s part of the culture.
5. Measurement
Measurement was the area where the research revealed the biggest gaps. Most organizations do not have clear metrics for leadership performance, and most L&D teams aren’t measuring the impact of their programs. I understand the frustration. Measuring behavior change is complex, and many L&D teams feel they’re doing it alone.
But we don’t need perfect measurement to make progress. A simple starting point is to use existing engagement survey questions related to communication, clarity, goal setting, and feedback. These provide meaningful signals. From there, co-create performance indicators with leaders themselves; they often have valuable ideas about what “good leadership” should look like in their context.
Equally important is democratizing the data. Leaders need access to information about their performance, along with support in interpreting that data and translating it into action plans. AI can also play a helpful role in surfacing insights that would otherwise remain hidden, especially in large, distributed teams.
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Where L&D should focus in 2026
If I had to give one piece of advice as teams plan their strategies for next year, it would be this: go talk to your leaders. Don’t ask them what skills they want to develop, instead ask them what challenges they’re facing. Many of those challenges won’t be solved by skill-building alone – they’ll be rooted in systems, processes, cross-team dynamics, or lack of support. Let them vent. Let them unload. And then build your strategy around what you hear.
Leadership development is changing fast, and the expectations for leaders are climbing even faster. But with a more human, strategic, collaborative, and data-informed approach, I believe we can create leadership experiences that truly serve the people in them, and the organizations around them.
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