Episode 32: Your 2026 Leadership Development Strategy: What to Prioritize & Why it Matters | 12MinuteLeadership

Planning for 2026? Leadership development doesn't happen by intention alone... it happens by design. 

In this week's episode, I break down how to build a focused, high-ROI leadership development strategy—one that prioritizes what actually matters and drives performance, trust, and retention. 

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

•  Identify the leadership capabilities that actually move business results Avoid common “check-the-box” development traps Focus time and resources on growth that sticks Align leadership development with culture, engagement, and outcomes

This is a practical conversation for leaders who want clarity, not clutter—and a strategy that supports both people and performance.

Like what you heard on today's episode and want to go deeper? Subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. 

You can also pick up my book, Lead Anyone, on Amazon.

Then go to my website to check out ways that we can support your leadership goals.

From executive retreats to customized training and coaching, my team of experts will help you level up your leadership and accelerate your results.

Go to www.eliseboggs.com for more info.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

Speaker 0:02

Welcome to the 12-Minute Leadership Podcast, where in 12 minutes or less, I'll share small things that you can put into immediate practice that will make a big difference in your leadership effectiveness. I'm your host, Elise Boggs Morales, leadership professor, consultant, and coach. For the last 17 years, I have helped thousands of leaders level up their influence and achieve remarkable results. If you want to trade compliance for true commitment and create your dream team, you are in the right place. Get ready for a quick hit of practical wisdom to increase your team's engagement, inspire top performance, and retain your best talent. Ready to level up your influence and get better results? 12 minutes starts now. Hi everyone, Elise here. Welcome back to the podcast and welcome to a brand new year. There's something about the start of a new year that naturally invites reflection and intention. Leaders are thinking about goals, priorities, strategy, and what they want to do differently this year. But today, I want to challenge you to think about leadership development in a very practical way. Because leadership development doesn't just happen by intention alone. It happens by design, just like any other initiative in your organization. If it's not on your calendar, it's not a priority. And if leadership development isn't intentionally planned, it will always lose out to urgency, client demands, and day-to-day operations. So today's episode is about your 2026 leader development strategy. Specifically, what should be on your calendar this year, why it matters, and the return on investment for getting this right. Think of this episode as a checklist you can come back to as you plan your year. First is executive retreats. This should be on your calendar at least once, ideally twice this year. Executive retreats create space for vision, strategy, alignment, culture, and leadership expectations. When leaders don't step away from the business to work on the business, they stay stuck in reaction mode. And the return on investment, clearer priorities, faster decision making, stronger alignment, and fewer costly miscommunications throughout the year. This is not time away from work, this is the work. Over the last several months, I've been working with the shareholders group in partnership with their board to create a growth philosophy for the next 10 years. The outcomes of these meetings have been clarity around vision and strategy in order to remain competitive while still maintaining healthy culture. This clarity has provided a lens and filter that will now simplify decision making. In the consulting world, we have a phrase, slower is faster, which means you have to slow down and get clear before you can move forward with accuracy and speed. Facilitating executive retreats is one of my favorite functions as a consultant. Next, you need intentional time scheduled for succession planning and future leaders review. This includes identifying future partners or designees, evaluating leadership readiness, and assessing risk if key leaders leave. Leadership gaps rarely show up suddenly. They show up unprepared. So here's some questions to ask. Who are we intentionally developing? Where are we overly dependent on one person? And what roles would be the hardest to replace? And the return on investment, reduced leadership risk, smoother transitions, higher retention of high potential leaders, and long-term organizational stability. I work with several organizations who postpone letting go of bad hires because they don't have solid contingency plans and people in the wings being developed. Avoid this stressful dilemma by giving this topic regular airtime in your leadership meetings. The next area of focus is leadership development by level. One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is offering one size fits all leadership training. Leaders at different levels face different challenges. Your calendar should reflect development tracks by leadership level, such as emerging leaders, mid-level leaders, senior leaders, and executives. Key topic areas to rotate throughout the year are emotional intelligence, communication, conflict management, leveraging strengths, coaching and mentoring, delegation, time and energy management, performance reviews and feedback, and leading through change. You'll also want to add 360s for growth, which I'll talk about in just a bit. The ROI is faster leadership maturity, fewer people problems, stronger team performance, and better decision making at every level. And here's a pro tip that I've learned. I never assume what people need. I ask. Whether it's taking a poll or having your leaders engage in deeper conversations about their challenges and pain points with their teams, make sure your trainings are not generic one size fits all content. Before delivering a training for a client, we fully customize every training we deliver and have seen the significant difference in engagement and people applying what they're learning and also growing in those needed skill sets. All right, next is a development track for future leaders. High performers don't automatically become great leaders. Future leaders need mentoring, coaching, exposure to strategic projects, leadership skill development, and feedback and stretch opportunities. This should be an ongoing track, not a one-time conversation. When organizations fail to develop future leaders, they either lose them or promote them before they're ready. So the ROI on this one is stronger internal promotion, increased retention, lower hiring costs, and a culture that values growth. One of my most popular offerings these days is training on coaching and mentoring. Why? Because it is needed for growth and no one was ever taught how to do it. It is typically not a part of anyone's technical training. For some, coaching and mentoring comes naturally, but for others, they need simple tools for knowing how best to develop the people on their team without it feeling like a major time drain. One of the greatest areas of needed support is performance conversations. Doing these well is what separates good organizations from the great ones. Next is 360 feedback and reflection windows. Feedback is only useful if it's paired with reflection and support. Your calendar should include time for 360 feedback for both yourself as an executive and for your senior leaders. Time for debriefing results, having coaching conversations, and developmental planning. Without reflection, feedback creates defensiveness instead of growth. The clients I work with, we always complete a 360, then a one-on-one debrief, create a leadership development plan, and then they have the option for executive coaching. What's the return on investment? Greater self-awareness, improved leadership behavior, stronger trust, and better team relationships. And finally, leadership integration time. This is one of the most overlooked elements of leadership development. Learning without integration doesn't stick. Your calendar should include time to reflect on what leaders are learning, discuss application, reinforce new habits, and evaluate what's working. This can happen through coaching, peer learning groups, leadership check-ins, and facilitated discussions. One way I support organizations in this is holding monthly refreshers in between quarterly trainings to reinforce what people learn so that there's some level of accountability, but also support to put what they learned into practice. And it's an opportunity also to ask questions. So, what to prioritize? As you think about all of this, remember more isn't necessarily better. Leadership development works best when it's focused, consistent, and intentional. So choose depth over breadth, choose rhythm over intensity, and choose a few priorities and protect them on the calendar. So in closing, I'll leave you with this question. If someone looked at your calendar for 2026, what would it tell them about how seriously you take leadership development? Your calendar reveals your values. And when leaders invest intentionally in leadership development, they don't just improve performance, they create cultures where people want to stay, grow, and lead well. Your culture is your competitive edge. And if you need support designing your leadership development strategy for 2026, we can help. If you want help planning and facilitating your executive retreats, we can help with that too. Oftentimes, an outside consultant who is an expert is exactly what you need to get these priorities at the forefront without putting a lot of extra work on your already full plate. So thanks for joining me today. If this episode was helpful, share it with another leader who's planning the year ahead. I'll see you next time. Like what you heard on today's episode and want to go deeper? Subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also pick up my book, Lead Anyone, on Amazon. Then go to my website to check out ways that we can support your leadership goals. From executive retreats to customized training and coaching, my team of experts will help you level up your leadership and accelerate your results. Go to www.eliseboggs.com for more info.