The results show that as organizations work to operationalize AI across every aspect of business, the pressure is mounting on those charged with leading learning and development to deliver fast, fluid, and future-focused learning that builds the collective intelligence of humans and machines.

In this report, we explore three objectives for the coming year and three strategies for learning and development and the C-suite to consider as they tackle those objectives.

Survey Highlights

To complement the survey data, this report offers insights on the attributes that organizations prioritize when selecting training programs, as well as the innovative methods they are implementing to drive engagement and sustain learning outcomes.

The findings reveal key trends shaping leadership development in 2025, with a focus on evolving training goals, emerging learning methods, and persistent challenges that organizations must address to support learners effectively.

Survey Highlights

It’s time to widen skill sets, challenge paradigms, embrace paradoxes, and potentialize the people who can adopt new technologies and generate the innovative ideas and productivity gains organizations need in order to stay competitive.

Download our report for insights on the key challenges and strategies for L&D today in training leaders for their role in making those transformations happen.

The foundation of this report is a global survey of more than 1,100 learning and development and human resources professionals and functional heads at companies from 15 countries around the world and across a range of industries. From there this report goes deeper, bringing in secondary research and conversations with experienced L&D professionals.

Get your copy of the report for a deeper look into the key business challenges and evolving requirements for leadership skills that align with corporate goals for leadership training programs.

Our research delves into a multiphase study that identified and vetted essential leadership skills required for navigating today’s disruptive workplace. Intended to increase awareness and guide decision-making, this report emphasizes the critical need for inspiring leadership that drives business outcomes and cultivates a future-ready workforce.

Our latest research bears this out: Through interviews and a survey of nearly 1,300 leadership and development (L&D) professionals and functional leaders involved in planning leadership training, we discovered a greater need to develop leaders who are truly ready for anything.

In this report, we explore four key challenges L&D faces to meet organizations’ expectations for preparing today’s leaders to succeed. We then examine four areas of focus, in terms of both approach and content, that L&D leaders are employing to meet those challenges.

The results include insights into business challenges, future leadership skills, and the organizational goals that companies aim to achieve with the help of leadership development training programs. The report also examines the demand drivers for such programs, along with perceptions of key attributes and success factors.

Additionally, the findings shed light on the preferred modes of delivering leadership development programs, the frequency of planning and conducting such programs, and more.