Articles / Leadership Training Needs: Identify and Address Skill Gaps
Development, Training & CoachingDiscover how to identify leadership training needs with proven assessment methods, competency frameworks, and strategies to close critical skill gaps.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Sat 29th November 2025
Leadership training needs are the specific skills, knowledge, and capabilities that current or emerging leaders require to perform effectively in their roles but currently lack. Identifying these needs accurately ensures development investments target genuine gaps rather than assumed deficiencies, maximising both individual growth and organisational return.
Here's a sobering reality: a CareerBuilder survey reveals that more than 26% of managers admitted they weren't ready to become leaders when they started managing others, and 58% said they received no management training whatsoever. Meanwhile, only 28% of business executives rate themselves effective at developing leaders. This gap between leadership requirements and actual capability represents both a significant organisational risk and a substantial opportunity for competitive advantage.
This guide provides a systematic approach to identifying leadership training needs across all levels of your organisation, from frontline supervisors to C-suite executives. You'll learn proven assessment methodologies, discover the most common skill gaps organisations face, and develop strategies for prioritising and addressing your specific development requirements.
Leadership training needs represent the gap between the competencies leaders currently possess and those required for optimal performance in their roles. Understanding this concept requires examining both its components and its strategic importance.
A training needs assessment identifies the "gap" between performance required and current performance. When a difference exists, it explores the causes and reasons for the gap and methods for closing or eliminating it.
For leadership specifically, this gap manifests in several dimensions:
Training needs assessment offers a strategic approach to improve the performance of organisations and helps them gain a competitive advantage. When conducted properly, it:
For large organisations, strong leadership is critical to success. The training needs assessment identifies employees with leadership potential and enables tailored programmes for their development.
Effective needs assessment operates across three interconnected levels, each providing distinct insights into development requirements.
This macro-level analysis examines leadership needs in the context of overall business strategy and organisational goals.
Key questions to address:
Data sources:
This meso-level analysis explores leadership needs within specific functions, departments, or project teams.
Key questions to address:
Data sources:
This micro-level analysis assesses specific leaders' development requirements based on their roles and career trajectories.
Key questions to address:
Data sources:
Multiple assessment methods provide complementary insights into development requirements. The most effective approaches combine several techniques for a comprehensive view.
Review objective performance indicators to identify patterns suggesting leadership capability gaps:
| Performance Indicator | Potential Leadership Gap |
|---|---|
| High team turnover | Employee engagement and development skills |
| Missed deadlines | Planning and execution capabilities |
| Quality issues | Standards-setting and accountability |
| Customer complaints | Service orientation and team alignment |
| Low innovation rates | Creative leadership and psychological safety |
| Poor cross-functional collaboration | Relationship-building and influence |
This comprehensive feedback method collects performance input from peers, managers, and subordinates, providing multi-perspective insight into leadership effectiveness.
Benefits:
Implementation considerations:
Self-assessment tools help leaders understand their strengths, weaknesses, and leadership style—and support goal setting for development.
Popular instruments include:
A systematic comparison of required competencies against current capabilities:
Process steps:
Qualitative research provides context that quantitative data cannot capture:
Interview approaches:
Focus group applications:
Real-world scenarios assess skills under realistic pressure:
Research consistently identifies recurring capability gaps across organisations and industries. Understanding these common needs provides a starting point for your assessment whilst recognising that each organisation's priorities will differ.
Research identifies the top five leadership needs as:
Notably, these high-priority needs are often not among the top skills that leaders actually possess, creating a persistent capability-performance gap.
Different leadership levels face distinct development challenges:
Frontline Managers:
Mid-Level Managers:
Senior Executives:
Several factors create new leadership development needs:
Digital transformation:
Workforce evolution:
Business environment:
Understanding root causes helps organisations address not just symptoms but underlying issues that create capability deficits.
Skill and knowledge inadequacies in leadership often arise due to the rapid pace of change in today's business environments. Technological advancements and evolving industry trends can make it challenging for leaders to keep their skill sets current. Without constant learning and development, even experienced leaders may find themselves lacking necessary skills to navigate new challenges.
The persistent gap between leadership requirements and capability reflects inadequate development investment:
Many organisations promote based on technical excellence rather than leadership potential:
More than 60% of organisations surveyed provided no training for virtual teams or virtual team leaders on how to deal with the challenges of collaborating virtually. This gap has become increasingly significant as hybrid work models persist.
Leadership and management competency gaps can arise when senior employees retire without adequate knowledge transfer or successor preparation. Mentorship programmes that pair experienced leaders with high-potential employees help build experience and foster a culture of continuous learning.
A structured assessment process ensures comprehensive and actionable results.
Clarify what you're assessing and why:
Define what good leadership looks like in your context:
Core competencies to consider:
| Competency Area | Example Behaviours |
|---|---|
| Building relationships | Creates partnerships, builds trust, shares ideas |
| Developing people | Helps others become more effective through strengths-based coaching |
| Driving change | Embraces change, sets goals aligned with vision |
| Inspiring others | Encourages through positivity, vision, confidence, and recognition |
| Thinking critically | Gathers and evaluates information for sound decisions |
| Communicating clearly | Shares information regularly and concisely |
Customise competency definitions to reflect your organisation's strategy, culture, and values.
Choose appropriate tools based on your scope and resources:
For individual-level assessment:
For team-level assessment:
For organisation-level assessment:
Implement assessment activities systematically:
Synthesise data into actionable insights:
Translate analysis into development plans:
Different leadership needs require different development approaches. Matching interventions to specific gaps increases effectiveness.
Best suited for:
Examples:
Best suited for:
Executive coaching is a popular and effective tool at senior levels; having an expert coach to discuss leadership and communication styles, values, and day-to-day challenges can boost executives' leadership performance.
Best suited for:
Mentorship programmes enable the transfer of knowledge from retiring executives to emerging leaders, building experience whilst fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.
Best suited for:
Best suited for:
Best suited for:
Mid-level leaders, managing both up and down, benefit from experiences that connect them with mentors and peers facing similar challenges.
Tailoring development focus to leadership level ensures appropriate intervention.
The new manager role is one of the most challenging that leaders face. Entry-level managers are often overlooked in leadership development efforts, but it is critical that they receive training to ensure their success.
Priority development areas:
Effective approaches:
Mid-level managers require development focused on the ability to manage up as well as down and the ability to have difficult conversations.
Priority development areas:
Effective approaches:
Senior leaders benefit from depth and high-touch interactions with peers and experts that provide outside-in perspectives.
Priority development areas:
Effective approaches:
Rather than treating needs assessment as an occasional event, embed it into ongoing leadership development practice.
Align assessment with existing processes:
Ensure development activities inform future assessments:
Stay current on evolving leadership requirements:
| Assessment Type | Recommended Frequency |
|---|---|
| Individual 360 feedback | Every 18-24 months |
| Self-assessment | Annually |
| Performance-based analysis | Quarterly review |
| Organisational needs review | Annually |
| Competency framework update | Every 2-3 years |
Systematic attention to leadership development delivers measurable organisational benefits.
Leaders equipped with necessary capabilities drive better results:
The manager influences 70% of a team's engagement, making manager development especially important to team success. Developed leaders create environments where employees thrive.
Investing in the development of employees increases their motivation and strengthens their sense of commitment to the organisation. Leaders who feel developed are more likely to stay; leaders who develop others build loyalty in their teams.
Proactive development creates pipelines of prepared leaders:
Organisations with superior leadership capability outperform competitors:
A leadership training needs assessment is a systematic process for identifying the gap between leadership competencies currently present in an organisation and those required for optimal performance. It examines needs at three levels—organisational, team, and individual—using methods such as 360-degree feedback, performance data analysis, self-assessments, interviews, and skills gap analysis. The assessment's purpose is to direct development resources toward genuine capability gaps, ensuring training investments deliver maximum impact.
Identify leadership development needs through multiple complementary methods: analyse performance data for patterns suggesting capability gaps; conduct 360-degree feedback to gather multi-perspective insights; use self-assessment instruments to understand leaders' own perceptions; perform skills gap analysis comparing required competencies to current capabilities; conduct interviews and focus groups for qualitative context; and use job simulations or assessment centres for objective skill measurement. Combining several methods provides the most accurate and comprehensive picture.
The most common leadership skill gaps include inspiring commitment and motivation, building collaborative relationships, leading change effectively, taking initiative proactively, and managing employees day-to-day. Additionally, communication, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, conflict resolution, and virtual leadership consistently appear as development priorities. The specific gaps most critical to any organisation depend on its strategy, culture, and current leadership population.
Leadership training needs vary by level because each leadership tier faces distinct challenges requiring different capabilities. Frontline managers must transition from individual contribution to leading others, focusing on fundamental people management skills. Mid-level managers navigate the complexity of managing upward and downward simultaneously whilst influencing cross-functionally. Senior executives require strategic, enterprise-wide perspectives and must shape culture whilst managing external stakeholders. Tailoring development to level ensures relevance and impact.
Organisations should assess leadership training needs continuously through integrated talent management processes, with formal comprehensive assessments conducted annually. Individual 360-degree feedback works well every 18-24 months, whilst performance-based indicators should be reviewed quarterly. Competency frameworks require updating every 2-3 years to reflect evolving business requirements. Major strategic shifts, significant organisational changes, or emerging business challenges may trigger additional assessment cycles.
Training needs represent genuine capability gaps that, if addressed, improve leadership performance and organisational results. Training wants are development activities leaders prefer or request that may not address actual performance requirements. Effective needs assessment distinguishes between the two by grounding analysis in performance data, business requirements, and objective assessment rather than solely relying on leader preferences. Both matter—engaged leaders more readily embrace development—but resources should prioritise needs whilst considering wants.
Prioritise multiple leadership training needs by evaluating each against criteria including: business impact (how significantly does this gap affect results?), prevalence (how many leaders share this need?), urgency (how time-sensitive is addressing this?), feasibility (can we realistically develop this capability?), and strategic alignment (does this support organisational priorities?). Weight these factors based on your context, score each need accordingly, and focus resources on highest-priority gaps whilst developing plans for lower-priority needs over time.
Identifying leadership training needs with precision transforms development from well-intentioned activity into strategic investment. When organisations understand exactly where capability gaps exist—and why—they can direct resources toward interventions that genuinely improve leadership performance and drive business results.
The most effective approach combines multiple assessment methods, examines needs across organisational, team, and individual levels, and connects findings to specific development solutions. Rather than treating assessment as an occasional event, leading organisations embed needs identification into ongoing talent management practice, creating continuous feedback loops that keep development priorities current.
The stakes are significant. With managers influencing 70% of team engagement and the majority of new managers reporting they felt unprepared for leadership, the gap between leadership requirements and actual capability represents both a pressing challenge and a substantial opportunity. Organisations that systematically identify and address leadership training needs build the capable leadership pipelines that enable sustained competitive advantage.
Begin your assessment by examining the most critical leadership roles in your organisation, the competencies those roles require, and the methods that will provide the clearest insight into current capability levels. From that foundation, develop targeted interventions that close genuine gaps—and establish the ongoing processes that keep your leadership development investments aligned with evolving organisational needs.
Start your leadership training needs assessment today by selecting two or three methods from this guide and applying them to your highest-priority leadership population. The insights you gain will transform how you invest in developing the leaders your organisation needs.