Treating your leadership pipeline as a strategic asset

Succession planning is evolving from sporadic, reactive efforts to a continuous, data-driven process tightly aligned with business strategy. In today’s rapidly changing environment, leadership teams must regularly update their capabilities and ways of working to keep pace with disruption and rising expectations. The most successful organizations embed this approach throughout all levels, dynamically aligning talent, purpose, culture, and strategy. This enables them to build agile, future-ready leadership teams that can adapt quickly and drive lasting value.

Leadership Assessment

How data can improve every aspect of executive leadership development and succession planning

Companies assess their executives about once a year. Most make far less use of this objective, independent data about their leaders than they could. Some, however, are using it to build a competitive edge.

Leadership Development

The Agilist mindset: How leaders are putting agility to work to thrive in volatile times

Leaders’ agility can have a multiplier effect across their organizations. Here’s how some are putting it to work.

AI, Data & Analytics

How functional leaders are using AI—and barriers to progress

Usage of AI is growing across functions—but most leaders want to move even faster.

Leadership insights
Fundamental changes in the labor force participation rate and in how, where, and why many executives choose to work put companies at risk of falling into an insidious, lasting leadership deficit. To stay ahead and avoid this deficit, companies need to pivot to retention. One important consequence of this change is that leaders must make developing the skills and capabilities of their current and potential leaders a strategic initiative just as important as any other.
The connecting leader: An interview with Garry Ridge, former CEO of WD-40

Garry Ridge shares how leaders can embrace a culture of learning, purpose, and coaching to drive both personal growth and business success.

Route to the Top 2025: Explore global CEO backgrounds and trends

This interactive dashboard includes data on sitting CEOs at the largest companies in 27 markets around the world, along with data on new appointments and trends.

CPO focus: Leadership essentials for an AI-enabled HR function

Human resources leaders are at the center of the AI capability gap, responsible for both managing the workforce’s adoption of AI and upskilling themselves and their function. Our work and discussions with seven HR leaders highlight three leadership essentials that can help their peers unlock their AI potential.

Embedding sustainability and systems thinking as core healthy leadership qualities: A conversation with Stendert Krommendam, chief people and sustainability officer at Ecotone

Stendert Krommendam shares the leadership qualities he believes are critical for balancing performance, purpose, and sustainability.

Core leadership competencies needed in today's business landscape: A conversation with Mitja Schulz, CEO of Debrunner Koenig

Mitja Schulz, the newly appointed CEO of Debrunner Koenig, describes his leadership style and discusses how he thinks about developing leaders who excel in collaboration, staying agile, and being goal oriented.

Leading across boundaries and divides

We are all different: CEOs, board chairs, and other leaders can ignore it, or dive into it. Leaders have to choose.

Route to the Top | Today’s CEO: The growing importance of character, learning, and leading in a contested world
One capability stands out above the rest: those who travel the route to the top today must demonstrate the ability to lead across the boundaries that divide us.
Special feature: Neurodiversity in the workplace—what executives should know

Heidrick & Struggles’ Kathryn Bardi, Christina Cary, and Sean McLean sit down to talk about neurodiversity in the context of inclusive leadership—what it is and what it means for leaders and the workplace.

Investing in your leaders as a strategic asset: A fresh look at measuring the impact of leadership development

Companies are spending more on leadership development even as they are cutting costs in other areas. But it is becoming increasingly critical for them to understand the return on their investments. Taking a fresh perspective on five keys to success provides a practical path forward.

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