Building the Next Generation of Leaders: What It Really Takes

We're in an era where the rules of leadership are being rewritten in real time.

Volatile markets. AI reshaping work. Climate events disrupting supply chains. A 24/7 news cycle amplifying every misstep. In this environment, leadership is harder, faster, and more exposed than ever before.

The best-performing CEOs aren't leaving the future of their leadership pipelines to chance. They're building what McKinsey calls a "leadership factory" – an intentional, systematic approach to developing the next generation of leaders, at scale.

But here's the problem I see every day as a recruiter: while most organizations talk about succession, very few are actually doing the hard work to identify, nurture, and accelerate real leadership potential. They're still hiring on pedigree, still rewarding the "safe" internal bets, and still underestimating the importance of how leadership is built, not just who fills the seat.

So, what does it really take to build future-ready leadership pipelines?

1. Stop hiring for titles, start hiring for traits

It's no longer about the neat linear CV.

Six traits consistently show up as non-negotiable for next-generation leaders:

• Positive energy and balance under pressure
• Servant leadership – people who put the team above their ego
• Continuous learning and humility
• Grit and resilience
• Levity – the ability to create calm in chaos
• Stewardship – a long-term lens on impact

You can't teach all of these overnight, but you can recruit for them intentionally.

When we build leadership teams for emerging tech or cybersecurity clients, we focus less on "have they done the job before?" and more on "can they adapt to the unknown, learn fast, and carry others with them?"

This shift is already happening. In the UK, demand for AI and green-skill roles increased by 21% between 2018 and 2023, while job postings requiring formal degrees fell by 15%, signalling a move toward skills-first hiring.

2. Field test your high-potential talent – earlier than you're comfortable with

Too many organizations keep their high-potential talent "on ice" until they're fully polished. That's a mistake.

Stretch roles and field promotions are some of the best proving grounds for leadership. Nvidia's Jensen Huang famously brings new grads into strategic discussions alongside execs. Steve Jobs used to gather the 100 most influential people at Apple – including young engineers – for strategy conversations, regardless of hierarchy.

History shows high-potential talent who are encouraged to "try and try again" deliver outsized value. Bill Gates' Traf-O-Data failed, but it laid the groundwork for Microsoft. Steve Jobs' Lisa PC flopped, but led to the Mac.

When you're hiring, look for that same capacity to learn fast and fail forward. Leaders who've tasted failure (and bounced back) are often more resilient, creative, and grounded.

3. Make risk-taking part of your culture – and your leadership pipeline

If your culture punishes smart risk-takers, you'll only retain the risk-averse.

As former US General Jim Mattis wrote, "Personal initiative and risk-taking must be cultivated and rewarded. If the risk-takers are punished, only the risk-averse remain."

Leadership factories build psychological safety to experiment, fail fast, and learn faster. Military teams have long done "hot wash" reviews – immediate, honest debriefs after missions. Amazon and Apple rely on constant feedback loops to refine, learn, and improve.

In hiring, this means seeking out evidence of experimentation: people who've taken bets in their careers, tried something unconventional, built something new.

4. Recruit beyond the obvious networks

One of the biggest gaps I see? Diversity in the pipeline.

Not just demographic diversity, but diversity of thinking, background, and experience.

Only 24% of tech leaders say they prioritize diversity in recruitment. That's shocking – and shortsighted. Diverse leadership teams don't just perform better; they innovate faster and make more robust decisions.

Luxury-sector leaders like Hermès CEO Axel Dumas emphasize mentorship and knowledge-sharing to intentionally grow diverse successors: "Every leader here is responsible for teaching and passing knowledge to the next generation."

If we want future-ready leaders, we have to widen the net. That means sourcing outside the usual talent pools, rethinking "culture fit," and creating deliberate pathways for underrepresented talent to rise.

5. Measure leadership development like you measure revenue

Here's the hard truth: "hire and develop" is not a slogan – it's a system.

The best companies treat leadership development as a core KPI. One tech firm tracks not just external hiring metrics, but internal development time, 360° feedback scores, and promotion velocity of high potentials.

Why does this matter in recruiting? Because when I engage with a candidate about a leadership role, they want to know: Will this organization invest in me? Or am I stepping into a transactional role with no runway?

Without a visible system of leadership growth, you'll lose top-tier candidates to competitors who can articulate that investment.

Where do you start?

If you're serious about building next-generation leaders, you need to ask some uncomfortable questions:

• Are we really hiring for the right traits, or just the safe, familiar profiles?
• Are we giving people stretch opportunities early, or holding them back until they're "ready"?
• Does our culture reward learning and smart risks, or quietly penalize them?
• Are we diversifying the leadership bench – not just in demographics but in thought, background, and style?

And most importantly: Are we measuring leadership development with the same rigor we apply to revenue, sales, and operations?

Because here's the reality: AI might replace some roles, processes might evolve, but the one role that won't be disintermediated is the leader.

Leadership will always be human at its core. And the organizations that win will be those that treat leadership development not as an afterthought but as a deliberate, scalable system.

My lens on this as a recruiter

When I partner with clients, I'm not just filling roles. I'm helping them future-proof their leadership pipeline. That means identifying potential in unexpected places, challenging outdated hiring criteria, and creating teams that are resilient, adaptive, and diverse in every sense.

If you're thinking about how to build your next generation of leaders – and you don't want to leave it to chance – let's talk.