Steve Swinney is CEO of Kodiak Building Partners, a leader in the building materials industry that manages locally led companies.
Regardless of your industry, organization size or goals, you need strong leaders at every level to drive long-term growth. Investing in leadership development as a standard business practice can have a transformative effect on your organization, encouraging innovation, boosting employee engagement and accelerating sustainable growth.
Building a culture of leadership across all levels of an organization isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor—it requires thoughtful strategy and commitment. Here are two useful strategies to ensure your efforts in developing strong leaders will be successful:
Prioritizing Leadership Development
This might sound straightforward, but it’s often overlooked due to the resources required—time, money and sustained focus. However, this investment is not optional; it’s essential. Developing strong leaders enables employees to contribute meaningfully, drives bottom-line results and fosters an environment of upward and cross-functional mobility. The added benefits? A more energized culture, improved employee loyalty and deeper engagement.
There are many ways to approach and structure leadership development programs. From my vantage point, the most important elements for a leadership program to deliver include:
• Real-world application: Programs should focus on tactical, hands-on experiences rather than abstract theories.
• Individual success: Leadership development should emphasize that individual achievements fuel collective growth.
• Holistic perspective: Leaders need a comprehensive understanding of what’s required for success at every level of business.
• Growth mindset: Participants should be pushed to get outside of their comfort zone, encouraged to think critically and adapt.
It’s also important to have leadership development programs that are available for various levels of experience. If opportunities for leadership development are only available to senior leaders, you will likely see outcomes that align with a top-down style of management, which can hinder growth. Instead, take advantage of your full talent pipeline by creating leadership programs that are accessible no matter your position within the hierarchy.
At my company, for example, there is a focus on leadership development even within our internship program. Some may question the return of investment in training interns to lead, but I view it as a long-term play. Cultivating leadership from the bottom up is just as impactful as the more traditional approach of developing leaders in mid- and senior-level positions. When every employee—from intern to executive—is prepared to take advantage of opportunities for success, you lay a foundation for long-term growth.
Promoting Local Leadership
Establishing talent development programs and promoting leadership alone will only get you so far. To truly maximize their impact, companies need to create an environment where leadership skills can be applied in meaningful ways. This starts with ensuring employees are empowered to act. A certificate of completion for a training program has less value if employees don’t have the autonomy to implement those skills, make decisions, solve problems and adapt to real-world challenges.
Work with your teams to create a culture that allows employees throughout your organization to lead, to embrace accountability and to own outcomes. This philosophy is particularly important for large-scale companies that operate across various regions and markets. While alignment on broader goals is necessary, you also need to operate with enough agility that you can capitalize on the regional and/or market-specific expertise of individual leaders. In an environment where management is process-driven, it’s more difficult to realize business outcomes from individual contributions.
On the other hand, when you focus on outcome-driven management and give your employees the flexibility to get results in their own way, within defined guardrails, success will come faster and more efficiently, which creates additional value. Leadership isn’t about following a manual—it’s about trust and empowerment. Companies poised for long-term success are those that realize how valuable it is to extend leadership responsibilities beyond the C-suite, and who have also rooted their corporate culture in trust and autonomy to drive organic growth. A lean management structure built on trust encourages leadership growth and autonomy, which will fuel both corporate and individual success.
The Opportunity Ahead
At this point in the year, much of 2025 is still unwritten—a blank slate full of potential. Now is the time to assess your priorities and determine how leadership development fits into your growth strategy.
Are you fully leveraging your workforce’s potential? Have you created opportunities for employees at all levels to grow and lead? If not, it’s time to rethink your approach. Long-term success depends on building a leadership pipeline that empowers employees to take ownership, innovate and deliver results.
By investing in leadership at every level, you’re not just equipping your team for success today—you’re preparing them to shape the future of your business.
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