10 essentials for an emerging leaders program

Strong leadership doesn't happen by accident. It takes a well-planned program to arm leaders with concrete skills that make a difference. You want to empower leaders with the skills, confidence, and resilience they can apply in moments that matter. For those tasked with designing leadership programs, these ten principles offer a framework for shaping emerging leaders.

1. Set a leadership vision

Begin with clarity. Work with your senior management team to define what characteristics and skills your organization considers most important for its leaders. The focus could be on critical thinking, decision-making, or team-building skills. You may even have clear character traits you want your internal leaders to display. Make sure this is written down and defined as the “leadership vision” for your company. This blueprint helps to align training outcomes with the needs of the organization.

2. Make learning personal

Not every leader has the same needs. This is why traditional leadership training doesn’t work – or it simply doesn’t get adopted by employees. Instead, you can use adaptive learning technology, like simulations, to tailor content to each participant's strengths and gaps.

Use Case: Capgemini's leadership program was centered around immersive simulations, which allowed their learners to be challenged with a unique, adaptive experience. This improved employee engagement right off the bat.

3. Use realistic scenarios

An emerging leaders program should help leaders practice tough decisions. That’s why you want to design scenarios that mirror real workplace challenges, like resolving team conflicts or managing performance issues in a 1:1 meeting. Practicing these situations builds confidence when such situations arise in real life.

Below, you can see an example of a scenario occurring within a DEI training simulation. The emerging leader is placed in a difficult situation, helping their team navigate a difficult inclusion issue within the workplace.

4. Focus on communication skills

Should you focus on soft skills in your emerging leaders program? The research says yes. As technology improves, it’s increasingly important to prioritize soft skills like communication as a leader. The finest leaders are good listeners and communicators. In your program, you’ll need to train them to give feedback to their team, handle uncomfortable conflicts, and motivate their team members. An effective communicator will go much further as a leader than one who hasn’t honed their ability to interact with others.

5. Provide actionable feedback

Feedback works best when it's immediate. If you use “click-next” e-learning to upskill your emerging leaders, they miss out on the most critical component of training - feedback. That’s why going into 2025 and beyond, immersive learning is the better option. Simulations allow you to test emerging leaders on their decision-making skills, and also provide feedback immediately within the training program.

For instance, after a choice is made in a simulated conflict, a coaching feature can offer advice about different options that could have been chosen. This helps fast-track leaders to make changes and improvements, creating a stronger organization.

6. Include reflection - a breakthrough for behavior change

Reflection turns experience into growth. It’s important to note that “reflection” is different from “feedback.” Feedback from the person conducting the training (or from a simulation) is great. However, reflection might be just as important. At the end of every learning activity, it's best practice for leaders to reflect on what worked, what didn't work, and what they would do differently.

A breakthrough study from an associate professor out of Milan, Italy, discovered that self-reflection might be the key to learning and behavior change. This research, published by the Harvard Business School, shows that employees need to reflect at the end of training in order to create true behavior change in the long-term.

Click here to watch a review of this research.

7. Leverage internal mentorship

Match emerging leaders with experienced mentors. Sure, a training course or an immersive learning program can be successful on its own. However, make sure you give emerging leaders the necessary resources to connect with experienced managers. These personal relationships will go a long way when developing the next generation of leaders at your company. This can be one to one, or one to many. Either way, ask mentors to share real examples of their own successes and failures, to encourage new leaders to charge forward into new roles and challenges.

8. Make decisions with data

Unfortunately, most companies go wrong here. Without data, you can’t measure success. Immersive simulations excel at this, because they collect data in real-time. You can leverage this data to pick out emerging leaders who are ready for more responsibility. It also helps improve your training year after year and make informed decisions at the executive level.

Use Case: Simulations provide data that can be used during stakeholder meetings to make important decisions. Here’s how precise you can get with data.

9. Build inclusive leaders

Today's leaders are expected to create inclusive teams. Participants should be trained to recognize bias, encourage diverse perspectives, and lead with empathy. DEI simulations – like the ones used at Amazon – let leaders practice allyship and how to address microaggressions in real-world scenarios.

10. Support ongoing development

Leadership is a journey, not a one-time program or event. Design your emerging leadership training to extend beyond initial training. How? Include regular follow-ups, workshops, or new simulations and immersive learning on a regular basis. This continuous learning approach guarantees the application and fine-tuning of skills over time.

Why these essentials work 

These ten pillars leverage the theory of adult learning, focusing on relevance, engagement, and practice — the principles that make training stick. Leadership development professionals can apply these strategies to design programs that build skilled, confident leaders who are aligned with your organization's goals.

Want to learn more? Start by exploring Capgemini's success with their Emerging Leaders Program. Through personalized learning paths, realistic simulations, and actionable feedback, they've created a program that develops leaders who can thrive in any environment. 

Take it a step further

Contact ETU for additional guidance on how to start your emerging leaders program.