If you are in human resource management or serve in a related capacity, you are facing many issues. Whether to promote or hire to fill a leadership position is one you face on a daily basis.
And it is a positive thing when an organization relies more on promotion than on recruiting. This shows that the development and training structures put in place are effective enough to groom leaders.
However, a recent report reveals that many organizations lack candidates who are “ready now” for promotion to leadership roles.
The report titled “Succession Matters: Impactful Leadership Development and Accelerated Readiness”, is a valuable asset on this topic. It is third in the series of a global study. I fact, the executive recruitment and management group Korn Ferry and performed by Hanover Research commissioned it.
Approximately 50% of the respondents said that their organization lacks a concrete channel for developing and delivering “ready now” candidates to fill leadership positions.
Many companies thus resort to recruiting instead of promoting when a leadership position lacks a worker. In fact, “43% of C-suite positions are filled from the outside.” – Korn Ferry Study
SOME OF THE CAUSES IDENTIFIED
1. Nonspecific Development: Many organizations do not focus on the unique development of employees with relation to their goals and potential leadership duties and challenges.
“Oftentimes, leaders spend a good part of their careers participating in standard development programs that aren’t customized to their specific needs, which significantly hinders the fulfillment of their true potential being reached.” – Korn Ferry Study
2. Lack of Adequate and Personalized Experience Opportunities: Experience remains the best way to learn. Yet, most organizations do not provide enough experience and development opportunities.
Worse yet, the opportunities provided follow a general standard that has no real emphasis on building up a particular employee so he can take on a leadership role.
HOW O ENSURE A STEADY SUPPLY OF “READY NOW” EMPLOYEES
1. Start Development Early in An Employee’s Career: From the very onset, an employee’s career should have a defined growth path. Employees should discover challenging experiences right from the beginning so that their leaders can identify their aptitude for decision making.
“With careful planning much earlier on in a person’s career, organizations can ensure that leaders gain the experiences that truly matter for future success at advanced levels,” stresses Stu Crandell, Senior Vice President of Global Offerings at Korn Ferry and the Korn Ferry Institute.
2. Make Development and Experience Opportunities Unique to The Skills and Goals of Each Employee: Once an employee’s skills and experience have been identified and recorded, development plans need to be designed around them and in relation to their leadership goals.
3. Use a Skills Tracking and Goal Management System: The first two steps may lack structure and direction if there is no way to track the skills and experience of each unique employee.
A skill tracking system stores a current list of an employee’s proficiencies and experience. If this system also incorporates goal management, weaving skills and experience into the development process becomes a simple task.
“Your decisions will only be as strong as your data.” – Korn Ferry Study
If you already use Skills DB Pro for skills management, one easy way to create unique career plans is with the Competency and Goal Management System. With it, you can compare the current skills and experience of an employee with what is required for a leadership role and easily Identify gaps.
How Can SkillsDB Help?
Once you identify the gaps, you can then add the employee to scheduled trainings to bridge these gaps, using our training module.
SkillsDB has recently gone one step further. We are currently beta testing an Individual Development Plans (IDP) module, and the name says it all. We will publish a blog on this feature when it becomes available to all our users.
If you use any other skills management system but do not yet know if goal management is part of it. You may want to read their documentation or contact the providers.
FAQ
What does "ready now" mean for leadership candidates?
"Ready now" refers to internal employees who have the skills, experience, and development needed to step into a leadership role immediately when one opens. Approximately 50% of organizations report lacking a concrete pipeline of such candidates.
Why do companies lack ready-now leadership candidates?
Two primary causes: nonspecific development programs that are not customized to individual potential, and a lack of personalized experience opportunities. Standard training programs that ignore individual leadership gaps fail to build the specific capabilities needed for advanced roles.
What percentage of C-suite positions are filled externally?
According to a Korn Ferry study, 43% of C-suite positions are filled from outside the organization. This reliance on external hires signals that internal development pipelines are not producing enough leadership-ready candidates.
How should organizations develop future leaders early?
Start development from the very beginning of an employee's career with a defined growth path that includes challenging experiences. Early exposure to decision-making opportunities lets leaders identify each employee's aptitude and begin targeted development before leadership gaps become urgent.
Why must leadership development be personalized to each employee?
Generic training programs fail because leadership challenges vary by role, function, and individual strengths. Once an employee's skills and goals are identified, development plans must be designed around their specific gaps to build the exact capabilities needed for their target leadership role.
How does skills tracking support succession planning?
A skills tracking system maintains a current inventory of each employee's proficiencies and experience. When paired with goal management, it lets you compare an employee's capabilities against leadership role requirements, identify specific gaps, and create targeted development plans to close them.
What is the role of experience in leadership readiness?
Experience remains the most effective way to develop leaders, yet most organizations provide insufficient or overly generic opportunities. With careful planning, organizations can ensure leaders gain the specific experiences that truly matter for success at advanced levels.
How can SkillsDB help build a leadership pipeline?
SkillsDB lets you compare employee skills against leadership role requirements to identify gaps, then assign targeted training through the training module. The platform supports individual development plans and competency-based goal management to create structured, personalized leadership pathways.
Why is data quality critical for succession planning?
As the Korn Ferry study states, your decisions are only as strong as your data. Without accurate, current skills and experience data for each employee, succession planning becomes guesswork. A skills management platform ensures that development decisions are grounded in real capability assessments.
Should companies promote internally or hire externally for leadership?
Internal promotion is preferable because it validates that your development programs are effective. However, when organizations lack structured leadership pipelines, external hiring becomes the default. The solution is investing in early, personalized development so internal candidates are ready when opportunities arise.