subpage banner subpage banner

How Your Company Can Develop Future Leaders

Your company wants to retain top talent and develop them into future leaders. This is closely tied to retention. So how can your company coach its most promising employees and help them grow the skills to lead?


One important piece of advice across the board is to be upfront about it. If there are opportunities for growth at your company, don’t be shy about sharing it with your employees! Take their ideas into account now. Future leaders are already working at your organization if you have the foresight to recognize them. Leadership transitions are a natural and healthy part of every organization. Your company culture should prioritize constant learning between future leaders and current leaders.


Here’s how to develop future leaders that are well-rounded, who have the ability to lead through consensus, and who are prepared to compete in a constantly shifting marketplace.


Give cross-departmental opportunities


The Wall Street Journal recommends allowing employees to rotate between teams and jobs. This can help future leaders gain first-hand knowledge of different departments. Future executives need an intimate understanding of every part of the company.


Give employees the opportunity to get comfortable with discomfort by introducing them to other teams. Put formal development plans in place to create roadmaps for ambitious employees to develop their skills. Not only does this help employees feel engaged and self-motivated, but it also creates a way for people to weed themselves out.


Mentorship and feedback


Offering professional development opportunities along with mentorship is a powerful combination. Future leaders need to feel challenged. They need to feel deeply tied to the company while also being strongly connected to the beating heart of their industry. Provide opportunities for future leaders to interface with industry and then return to the company to apply what they’ve learned.


Give future leaders the chance to grow by providing a structure for mentorship and regular feedback. Great leaders are able to respond to feedback and improve. By pairing promising employees with visionary senior-level leaders, your company can help retain top talent and develop future leaders from within.


Don’t force it


A promising future leader has the ability to self-reflect, execute on ideas, and lead their peers. They embody the brand and values of the company. However, some people just don’t want the job. It’s much smarter for a company to let these people go rather than try to force them to become future leaders.


However, there are circumstances in which an employee can’t keep up with a future leader program through no fault of their own. Perhaps your company’s program is failing to nurture people from non-traditional backgrounds or minority groups. Once you articulate what qualities future leaders need to possess, don’t hesitate to invite any and all candidates to put themselves forward. Then, offer support but let people self-select out.


Talk transitions now


Transitions and successions are a natural part of every company. It’s okay to talk about it now before C-suite leaders make their inevitable departure. Preparation is the name of the game here. Future leaders and current leaders need to establish a healthy working relationship before the transition. This can look like one-to-one mentorship, shadowing, documentation, or inviting promising employees into strategic conversations.

Developing future leaders is just one component of your company’s leadership pipeline. While you prepare your top employees to eventually take the reins, make sure you also encourage the organization itself to innovate and adapt to future market conditions. Your future leaders should not have to rescue your organization from a resentful old guard. Make it easy for future leaders by starting the preparation process now.

SEE WHAT OUR CLIENTS
ARE SAYING

My experience with TalentHunt was outstanding. He was persistent, responsive, and completely took the stress out of finding top talent. I would recommend TalentHunt to anyone looking to secure top talent for their organization.

SANDRA B. HR Business Partner, Panasonic Corp.

Finding top talent is always difficult and time-consuming. TalentHunt always takes the stress out of these situations by offering turnkey recruitment services; he meets and pre-qualifies all candidates, provides detailed briefs and manages the candidate through the interview process to increase the close ratio. The success I have experienced working with TalentHunt has had a positive impact on our company's bottom line.

NANCY B. Head of Talent Acquisition, Oatey

I was heading up a critical sales team expansion in the NE United States and needed to get the right people fast in order to meet our targets. TalentHunt took the lead in a very tight candidate market and delivered. I would not hesitate to use TalentHunt for any of my recruitment needs, big or small.

GREG C. VP Sales, AGT Products

Working with Melissa for over a year toward building out our full Product organization for scale, including hiring Product Managers, User Experience Designers, Product Architects, and Product VPs was a great experience. We hired over 15 people with her direct involvement.

TOM K. Chief Customer Officer, Zuora

I highly recommend Melissa as a strategic recruiter in the enterprise software industry based on my experience with her. She is extremely detail-oriented and has as strong a work ethic as anyone I've seen in the field. Melissa worked hard to partner with me in order to best understand the distinct needs I had for the open roles on my team.

MARK R. VP Revenue Operations and Enablement at Segment-Twilio

Melissa has been instrumental in helping me build a team of extremely high-caliber architects this year. She is organized, meticulous, determined, and builds excellent rapport with candidates. She is an excellent communicator with tremendous focus and an eye for detail.

ANDREW B. Chief Technology Officer - EMEA at Oracle
DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE
RELIABLE

Dependability, consistency and accountability. You can count on the leader of the pride

Approachable

Every hunt is different. Coordination, communication and teamwork pay off for the pride that hunts together.

Responsive

Every hunt is different. Coordination, communication and teamwork pay off for the pride that hunts together.

Agile

A dynamic people oriented and results focused approach to hunting talent. Taking initiative, staying committed throughout, and finishing strong.

Our Clients

We are proud to be associated with our esteemed clients

LET’S TALK
Lets talk