As fall planning gets underway, HR leaders are making important decisions about where to invest time, budget, and attention before year-end. At tagLeaders, we work with HR professionals and leadership teams across industries, and we wanted a clearer view of what is currently getting the most attention.
So we reached out to a national audience of HR and people leaders and tracked engagement across five areas of leadership development. The result was not one runaway winner. In fact, the most interesting takeaway was how closely four of the top priorities were grouped.
First-Time Manager Development received 55 votes, Mid-Level Leadership Development received 52, Team Development received 49, Executive Coaching received 48, and Leadership Assessments received 29.
That tells us something important. Leadership development is not a one-level challenge. HR leaders are thinking about the entire leadership pipeline, from employees becoming managers for the first time to experienced executives who need more individualized support. As leadership development experts, that aligns closely with what we see in the organizations we support every day.
Why Leadership Development Is a Fall Priority
The final months of the year create a natural inflection point for HR teams. Organizations are reviewing performance, planning for the next year, identifying succession needs, setting budgets, and deciding where leadership capability needs to improve.
For many companies, the question is no longer whether leadership development matters. The question is where to focus first. The engagement from our HR audience points to five areas that deserve particular attention.
1. First-Time Manager Development Is Still a Major Need
The strongest engagement came from first-time manager development, and that makes sense. One of the most common leadership challenges we see is the transition from individual contributor to people manager.
New managers are suddenly expected to give feedback, delegate effectively, set expectations, manage performance, navigate conflict, motivate others, and lead difficult conversations. Yet many receive little or no formal preparation before stepping into the role.
The most effective first-time manager training is practical. New managers need skills they can use immediately, not abstract leadership theory. A strong first-time manager development program should help them understand the fundamental shift from doing the work themselves to achieving results through others.
At tagLeaders, our launchPad: First-Time Manager Development program is designed around that transition and gives managers practical tools they can apply in their day-to-day work. For organizations experiencing growth, promotions, or leadership turnover, this is often one of the highest-impact places to invest.
2. Mid-Level Leaders Need More Than Basic Management Training
The second-highest area of engagement was mid-level leadership development. This group is often carrying some of the most complex responsibilities in an organization.
Mid-level leaders are expected to translate strategy into execution while managing teams, influencing senior leaders, navigating change, and developing the managers beneath them. They are often caught between competing priorities, yet development for this population can easily be overlooked.
At this stage, leadership development programs need to move beyond foundational management skills. Mid-level leaders benefit from development focused on strategic thinking, executive communication, influence, decision-making, accountability, coaching, and leading through complexity.
Our Accelerator: Mid-Level Leadership Development program is designed for leaders who have already mastered the basics and are preparing for greater scope, visibility, and responsibility. For HR leaders thinking about succession planning and building the next generation of senior leaders, this group deserves particular attention.
3. Team Development Remains a Business Priority
Team development generated nearly as much engagement, with 49 votes. That is another signal we see reflected in our client work.
Even strong individual leaders can struggle when teams lack trust, communication, clarity, or accountability. Leadership development does not always need to happen one leader at a time. Sometimes the highest-value intervention is helping an entire team work better together.
Leadership workshops can help teams address real working dynamics, including communication breakdowns, conflict, role clarity, trust, decision-making, collaboration, and accountability. They are particularly valuable when organizations are restructuring, adding new leaders, integrating teams, or experiencing rapid growth.
The benefit of team development is that leaders have an opportunity to practice new behaviors together and create a shared language for how the team wants to work. That can make leadership development feel more immediately connected to business performance.
4. Executive Coaching Continues to Be a High-Interest Investment
Executive coaching received 48 votes, almost identical to team development. That matters because, as leaders become more senior, their development needs often become increasingly individualized.
Senior leaders may not need another management course. They may need a confidential thought partner who can help them examine how they are leading, identify patterns that may be limiting their effectiveness, and determine what needs to change as their responsibilities expand.
Effective executive coaching creates space for leaders to step outside the operational demands of their roles. It can help executives strengthen leadership effectiveness, improve communication and executive presence, navigate complex relationships, prepare for larger roles, lead through organizational change, and make more intentional decisions.
Organizations often invest in Executive Coaching during promotions, succession planning, significant transitions, or periods of business change. It can also be highly effective for strong leaders who simply want to become better.
5. Leadership Assessments Are Most Valuable When They Lead to Action
Leadership assessments generated fewer votes than the other four categories, but they still play an important role in many leadership development strategies. Assessments can give leaders something that is difficult to obtain on their own: objective insight into how they lead.
Tools such as DiSC can help leaders understand behavioral and communication preferences, while the Energy Leadership Index can provide another perspective on how leaders approach situations, respond under pressure, and show up for the people around them.
Assessments can be especially useful at the beginning of a coaching engagement, as part of a leadership development program, during team development, or when preparing a leader for a new role. The assessment itself is not the goal. The value comes from helping leaders understand the results and translate that awareness into different behavior.
What Leadership Development Programs Work Best?
There is no single leadership development program that works for every organization. The right strategy depends on who you are developing, the challenges they are facing, and what the business needs from its leaders next.
For some organizations, the priority may be building a stronger pipeline of first-time managers. For others, it may be preparing mid-level leaders for greater responsibility, strengthening a leadership team, investing in executive coaching, or using assessments to deepen self-awareness.
For small and mid-sized organizations in particular, leadership development does not need to be a massive enterprise-wide initiative. Targeted programs can often create meaningful impact when they are tied to the right business need and leadership population.
What the Results Tell Us
The most interesting part of our fall engagement data is how close the top four areas were. First-Time Manager Development led with 55 votes, but Mid-Level Leadership Development, Team Development, and Executive Coaching were right behind it.
That suggests HR leaders are not thinking about leadership development as one isolated problem. They are looking across the organization and asking how to strengthen leadership at multiple levels.
The takeaway: Leadership development isn’t a one-level challenge. HR leaders are looking for support across the pipeline, from first-time managers to senior executives.
What’s on Your Leadership Radar?
Every organization has different leadership priorities. If one of these five areas is on your radar for the remainder of the year, we’d love to hear about it.
Whether you are planning something this fall or thinking ahead to next year, our team is happy to share ideas, examples, and best practices from organizations we have partnered with. Let’s start the conversation
