I’ve been sitting with a pattern I’m seeing more clearly recently, and it’s in the ‘leadership’ space.

Organisations aren’t saying leadership development is pointless; they’re saying something more uncomfortable. Their previous attempts haven’t really landed.

Not because the programmes were badly designed. Not because people didn’t try.
But because leadership development quietly drifted into something fragmented, discretionary, and simple to ignore.

Over time, leadership development has become something else “people attend” rather than part of how leadership actually works. It loses status, becomes unloved, and, eventually, it becomes hard to justify, even when the intent is good. It’s also become more expensive; Leadership development = management development +20%.

What’s interesting is what some organisations are doing next.

Instead of asking, “what content do our leaders need?” they’re asking a harder question:
What do we actually need leaders to do differently in real situations?

That shift changes everything.

Suddenly, learning application matters more than attendance, the workplace decisions matter more than frameworks, and the measure of success isn’t whether people enjoyed the programme, but whether behaviour changes show up in day-to-day work.

There’s also a subtle change in how “partnership” is defined.

It’s less about content, platforms, or polished facilitation and more about working with people who have judgment, who understand complexity, and who can operate when strategy is still evolving and pressure is real.

None of this is flashy; it’s slower, more disciplined, and grounded.

But it feels like a quiet move away from leadership development as activity and towards leadership development as practice.

And that feels like progress.

#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork