Here’s a sobering reality check: 82% of managers step into their first management role without any formal leadership training. They’re thrown into the deep end, expected to swim, and we wonder why so many sink.
The result? Trust in managers dropped from 46% in 2022 to just 29% in 2024. That’s not a gradual decline, that’s a freefall. And it’s costing organizations more than just morale. Leadership issues cause 63% of U.S. companies to struggle with employee retention.
But here’s the good news: leadership isn’t some mystical quality reserved for the chosen few. While only 10% of people are natural leaders, another 20% show genuine leadership potential with proper training. The keyword? Training.
This isn’t about turning every manager into the next Steve Jobs. It’s about equipping your new leaders with the practical skills for leaders that actually move the needle—skills that transform good employees into great managers who people want to follow.
Let’s be honest: most leadership programs aren’t working. Only one in four senior managers believes that leadership training significantly influences business outcomes. That’s a shocking indictment of how we’ve been approaching manager development.
The problem isn’t investment; companies spend $166 billion annually on leadership development in the U.S. alone. The problem is execution.
Traditional programs often treat leadership development like a one-size-fits-all checklist. Send everyone to a two-day workshop, check the box, and hope for the best. But 75% of leadership development professionals estimate that less than half of what they train actually gets applied on the job.
Why? Because they’re teaching theory instead of practice, focusing on generic principles instead of actionable skills for leaders that managers can use on Monday morning.
As business executive D. Wayne Calloway once said: “I’ll bet most of the companies that are in life-or-death battles got into that kind of trouble because they didn’t pay enough attention to developing their leaders.”
When someone gets promoted to manager, their world flips overnight. Yesterday, they were responsible for their own deliverables. Today, they’re responsible for everything their team does, or doesn’t do.
For 71% of people, taking on a leadership role contributed significantly to their stress levels. And can you blame them? They’re suddenly expected to:
The challenge is even more acute in today’s hybrid work environment. A Microsoft study found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of managers feel they lack the necessary influence or resources to support their teams effectively.
This isn’t about manager incompetence. It’s about a massive preparedness gap.
After analyzing what actually separates high-performing managers from those who struggle, five core skills for leaders emerge as game-changers. The top five leadership skills include identifying talent, strategic thinking, managing change, decision-making, and influencing others, yet only 12% of leaders rate themselves as proficient in all five areas.
Let’s break down each one and, more importantly, how to develop them.
Forget the old-school command-and-control management style. Nearly 48% of employees believe a leader must be socially and emotionally intelligent, making it the second most important leadership quality.
Emotional intelligence isn’t about being “nice” or avoiding tough decisions. It’s about understanding what drives people, recognizing emotional undercurrents in your team, and responding appropriately.
How to develop it:
Real example: A manager at a tech company noticed her top performer becoming withdrawn. Instead of jumping to performance concerns, she asked about his workload and personal circumstances. Turns out, he was burned out from working late every night. A simple conversation about boundaries and delegation prevented a resignation.
50% of workers identify “the ability to connect the team with the organization’s purpose” as the most important leadership quality. Yet most managers communicate goals without context, delegate tasks without explaining the “why,” and wonder why their teams lack engagement.
As Simon Sinek puts it: “Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.”
How to develop it:
Real example: Instead of saying “We need this report by Friday,” try: “Client X is making a budget decision next Monday. This report gives them the data they need to choose us over competitors. That’s why Friday matters.”
New managers often struggle here because they’re afraid of two things: losing control and burdening their team. So they become bottlenecks, doing work they shouldn’t while their team waits for direction.
Effective delegation isn’t just distributing tasks—it’s developing people. It requires trust, clear expectations, and knowing when to step in (and when to step back).
How to develop it:
Real example: A marketing manager was drowning in campaign approvals. She delegated final approval authority to her senior team member for campaigns under a certain budget, with a weekly review session. The team member grew into a strategic thinker, and she freed up 10 hours weekly.
Skills like managing conflict are increasingly valued among leadership competencies. Yet most managers avoid conflict like it’s radioactive, letting small issues fester into team-destroying problems.
Great managers don’t avoid conflict—they reframe it as a problem-solving opportunity.
How to develop it:
Real example: Two team members kept disagreeing in meetings, creating tension. Instead of hoping it would resolve itself, the manager scheduled a conversation: “I’ve noticed tension during project discussions. I’m concerned it’s affecting team collaboration. Can we talk about what’s happening?” Turns out, they had different definitions of project success—easily resolved once surfaced.
70% of L&D professionals say it’s important or very important for leaders to master a wider range of effective leadership behaviors to meet current and future business needs. Why? Because the playbook keeps changing.
Adaptive thinking means staying effective when circumstances shift, pivoting strategies when needed, and keeping your team steady during turbulence.
How to develop it:
Real example: When a sudden budget cut hit, an operations manager didn’t panic. She gathered the team, explained the situation transparently, and asked: “Given these constraints, what matters most?” They collectively reprioritized, eliminated low-impact work, and maintained morale because everyone understood the reasoning.
Here’s where most organizations go wrong: they treat manager development as an event rather than a journey. You can’t build leadership skills for leaders in a weekend workshop any more than you can learn to swim from a PowerPoint presentation.
Leadership training participants show a 28% increase in leadership behaviors, 25% increase in learning, and 20% improvement in overall job performance—but only when development is ongoing and applied.
The first 90 days in a new management role are critical. Create a structured plan that includes:
Days 1-30: Foundation
Days 31-60: Integration
Days 61-90: Ownership
Instead of occasional marathon training sessions, create bite-sized learning opportunities:
Gallup’s research found that only 20% of employees feel their performance is managed in a way that enables them to do great work. Your new managers need feedback on their management, not just their results.
Create a 360-degree feedback system that captures insights from:
Still need to convince leadership that investing in manager development is worth it? Here are the numbers that matter:
Internal promotions are 20% faster, and external hires are 61% more likely to fail within 18 months. Developing internal leaders isn’t just cheaper, it’s smarter.
Organizations with well-defined leadership succession plans are six times more capable of engaging emerging talent and five times more likely to have strategies to keep employee turnover low and prevent burnout.
70% of team engagement is determined solely by the manager or team leader. When engagement drops, productivity follows. Last year, declining employee engagement resulted in $438 billion in lost productivity.
The alternative? Delaying leadership development can reduce profits by as much as 7%.
Even the best-trained managers will struggle in a toxic culture. Skills for leaders require an environment where they can actually be practiced.
25% of women surveyed don’t want to progress into senior leadership positions—the top reason being they’re put off by the company culture. That’s talent walking away before you even get a chance to develop it.
Create a culture that supports new managers by:
Normalizing vulnerability: Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. Create space for managers to admit uncertainty and ask for help without fear of judgment.
Celebrating growth, not perfection: As John Maxwell says, “Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”
Protecting time for development: If manager development only happens when everything else is done, it never happens. Build it into workflow expectations.
Modeling from the top: Senior leaders must visibly practice the skills they expect from new managers. Leadership development cascades downward.
Knowledge without action is just expensive trivia. Here’s how to turn these insights into results:
This Week:
This Month:
This Quarter:
Developing manager superstars isn’t about finding unicorns with innate leadership genius. It’s about systematically building the essential skills for leaders that turn competent individual contributors into managers who inspire, develop, and retain great teams.
88% of companies plan to upgrade their leadership development programs—because they’ve realized that leadership isn’t a luxury, it’s a competitive necessity.
The question isn’t whether to invest in developing your managers. The question is: can you afford not to?
Your next generation of leaders is already in your organization. They’re waiting for you to give them the tools, training, and support they need to become the managers you wish you had.
