Leadership Development Starts Before the Promotion

Leadership development can—and should—begin before someone becomes a manager.

“I want to become a manager, but I don’t have any management experience.”

I’ve heard friends express this frustration. They are ready to grow but feel caught in a cycle: they need management experience to become a manager, yet they need someone to give them an opportunity to gain that experience.

Organizations face a similar challenge. According to Blanchard’s 2027 Trends Report, only 17% of organizations are confident they have enough ready-now leaders, and just 19% say they could fill most or nearly all critical leadership positions internally.

The gap is not just about identifying future leaders. Only 9% of organizations say they are very effective at preparing managers for new expectations. If organizations wait until someone is promoted to begin developing them, they are already behind.

One way organizations can strengthen their leadership bench is by preparing employees for their first management role before a position opens. They can begin by helping employees lead themselves, learn from team experiences, and take on small leadership opportunities.

It Starts With Self Leadership

Future managers can start by learning to lead themselves.

Blanchard’s research identifies communication, self-awareness, self-management, agility, and adaptability as important capabilities for first-time leaders. This is especially relevant for employees who want to be leaders, because these skills do not require a management title to begin practicing.

Self leadership helps people take ownership of their goals, challenge beliefs that may be holding them back, and ask for what they need to succeed. Someone might believe that because they don’t have management experience, they can’t become a manager. A self leader can challenge that assumption and ask, “What can I do now to begin preparing?”

Self leadership also teaches people to set clear goals and diagnose what they need to make progress. Setting a clear goal means answering two important questions:

• What does a good job look like?
• By when?

Diagnosing means looking at where you are on a specific goal:

• What can you already do?
• Where are you still learning?
• How confident and motivated are you?
• What direction or support do you need?

A good manager helps a direct report get clear on a goal and decide how much direction and support they need. Self leaders learn to do this for themselves, getting valuable practice they can later draw on when leading others.

If you’re an aspiring manager, choose one goal, identify where you feel confident and where you need help, and then ask your manager for a specific opportunity to practice. That is self leadership in action.

Use Teams as Leadership Training Grounds

Any time you work with others—on a group project, as a volunteer, or in the workplace—you have an opportunity to strengthen your leadership skills.

The key is to observe what makes the team effective. What helps people work well together? What happens when goals or roles are unclear? How does communication shape the group’s performance?

Soccer offered me an early lesson in these dynamics. Individual talent matters, but it was not enough to make us a strong team. We performed at our best when we understood our positions, communicated clearly, and recognized how each person’s contribution supported a shared goal.

That lesson shows up in Blanchard’s research on teams. Organizations identified unclear goals and priorities, poor communication, and unclear roles and responsibilities as the leading barriers to team effectiveness. Those may sound like basic issues, but they can keep even a talented group from performing well.

Future leaders can use team experiences to notice these patterns:

• Is everyone working toward the same outcome?
• Does each person understand their role?
• Are people raising concerns openly?

Teams provide the perfect opportunity to practice leadership skills. You do not need to be a manager to ask a useful question, clarify an assumption, or help the group refocus. By listening, speaking up, following through, and helping the group stay focused, future leaders can see firsthand what helps a team succeed and what gets in the way.

Gaining Leadership Experience Before Attaining the Title

Organizations can give aspiring managers opportunities to practice leadership before a management position opens. These experiences are not the same as managing direct reports, but they allow employees to begin developing many of the skills they will eventually need.

An employee could:

• Lead a small project
• Facilitate part of a meeting
• Onboard or mentor a colleague
• Coordinate work across teams

The opportunity does not have to be large. What matters is that the employee has something meaningful to own, understands what success looks like, and receives feedback along the way.

That creates a simple formula:

• Something meaningful to own
• Clear expectations
• Coaching and feedback

Of course, there’s more to leadership development than handing someone more responsibility. When the employee is left to figure everything out alone, a stretch assignment can feel like an unfair test—especially if they worry that asking for help will make them appear unready.

I know how much a manager’s support can matter. I am fortunate to have a manager who makes it clear that he supports me, wants me to grow, and has my back when I step into something new. That makes a new opportunity feel like a chance to learn rather than a test to pass.

The goal is to give someone room to lead while staying available to coach them along the way. With that support, an additional task can become a real opportunity to grow.

Make the Path Visible

Not everyone wants to become a manager, and management is not the only way to grow professionally. But when someone does express an interest in leadership, it benefits both the organization and the future leader to make the path forward clear.

Employees need to speak up about how they want to grow, and managers need to help make the next steps visible. When someone says, “I want to become a manager,” the next conversation should focus on what that person can begin learning and practicing now.

Even if a position isn’t open, leadership development can begin. The employee can complete leadership training, lead a project, mentor a colleague, or join meetings that help them gain a deeper understanding of the organization. With each assignment, the future leader builds leadership skills.

The goal is not to prepare someone for one fixed version of management. The assignment will keep changing. Future leaders need opportunities to build the judgment, confidence, and adaptability to learn as they go.

Organizations build strong leadership benches over time by equipping and empowering talent already in the organization. As future leaders grow in their current roles, organizations create a deeper pool of internal candidates to turn to when a management position opens.