Only 18% of organizations are confident they have enough ready-now leaders, underscoring the growing importance of leadership adaptability.
ESCONDIDO, Calif. — November 13, 2026 — Blanchard®, a global leadership development company, released The Adaptability Imperative: Insights from Blanchard’s 2027 HR and L&D Trends Research. The report examines how organizations are preparing their leaders, teams, and learning strategies for changing technology, workforce expectations, and business priorities.
Survey findings reveal a significant gap between how quickly organizational needs are changing and how prepared organizations are to respond. Only 18% of respondents are confident they have enough leaders ready to step into critical roles, and just 20% say they could fill most or nearly all critical leadership positions internally.
The report identifies four trends shaping HR and L&D priorities in 2027:
- Developing Ready-Now Leaders: Organizations need stronger leaders faster than they are developing them.
- Anticipating What’s Next: Many organizations lack the data and systems needed to identify emerging capability needs.
- Empowering Teams: Teams are taking on increasingly complex work while continuing to struggle with unclear priorities, poor communication, and unclear roles.
- Learning at the Speed of Business: Organizations need to respond faster to emerging leadership needs, yet only 17% are confident they can launch learning quickly enough.
Together, these findings point to adaptability as a critical capability at every leadership level, from first-time leaders navigating new responsibilities to executives guiding strategy and change. This requires recognizing what is changing, determining what the situation requires, and responding at the right pace with sound judgment.
Leah Clark, VP of Thought Leadership and author of the report, shared, “The challenge for organizations is that leadership expectations are changing faster than their ability to prepare people to meet them. Building ready-now leaders means developing the judgment, confidence, and adaptability to lead through what comes next, even when we don’t know exactly what that will look like.”
“The future of leadership development isn’t about building a longer list of skills,” said Scott Blanchard, Chief Executive Officer at Blanchard. “It’s about helping people become more capable, confident, and adaptable so they can succeed in situations we haven’t even imagined yet.”
The Adaptability Imperative provides practical actions organizations can take to build ready-now leaders, anticipate emerging capability needs, strengthen team performance, and create more responsive learning systems.
About the Research
The 2027 Blanchard HR and L&D Trends Survey was conducted from August 27 through October 23, 2026. The final data set contained 699 records. Respondents represented a range of organizational levels and functions, 21 industry categories, and 36 countries.
About Blanchard
Blanchard is a global leadership development company that helps organizations build leaders who bring out the best in people and drive performance. For more than 45 years, Blanchard has partnered with organizations worldwide to develop leadership capabilities and teams that strengthen engagement, accelerate performance, and create lasting organizational success. Learn more at Blanchard.com.
Media Contact
Nancy Williams, CMO
[email protected]
760.489.5005