Developing vital leadership competencies and constructing diverse leadership channels are the critical objectives a leadership development plan must accomplish. A leadership development plan also aids with employee engagement, providing them with continuous learning opportunities during its implementation. To help you get started, the section below is a helpful guide to creating a comprehensive leadership development plan. 1. Assess and Identify Current and Potential Talent Several industries and companies offer employees formal leadership development training programs and talent pools where they can select their choice for a leadership development plan. However, not all organizations have training programs for their workers, and others lack formal talent identification and assessment procedures. For those companies without a talent pool and leadership development for their employees, management can utilize the nine-box grid system. This strategy measures employee capabilities through visualizing potential talents or future performance and current performance abilities. Through the nine-box grid, the company can select employees as high potentials, stars, and high performers and shape the leadership development plan accordingly. 2. Obtain Buy-ins From Company Stakeholders A leadership development plan works when there are buy-ins from upper management and senior leadership, managers and supervisors of the target employees, and the employees themselves. The focus of the leadership development plan is to improve employee skills by requiring more significant investment, including training and development budgets to aid in succession planning. The budget plan must go through senior leadership approval before implementation, with the conditions of upholding organizational strategic objectives. The planning process also includes the involvement of management and supervisors, as the targeted employee needs to shoulder additional activities and attend training sessions that can divide employee focus from present work commitments. Employees must also willingly participate in the leadership development program, as there are factors that may hinder them from doing so in the first place. Not all employees want to be in a leadership position, despite having the capabilities for one. There must be a transparent agreement between senior leadership, manager, and employee to make a successful leadership development program. 3. Identify Leadership Styles There is a possibility that there is an overarching leadership style in the organization that potential leaders need to function effectively. The leadership style stems from the business needs and culture of an institution. Different leadership styles are present in different industries and organizations, including autocratic, democratic, coaching, laissez-faire, authoritarian, pacesetting, affiliative, and transformational. Businesses can prefer one over the other or utilize more than one style in the organization. Leaders must learn to use a certain style or a combination depending on the situation. 4. Identify and Assess Key Leadership Competencies It is also necessary to identify the leadership competencies that are essential to the current and future success of the organization. The competencies serve as the foundation of the development plan and ensure the successive leaders are ready for present challenges and unforeseeable events that can occur. There are three main groups for leadership competencies: namely, leading the organization, leading the others, and leading the self. Aside from identifying leadership competencies, the company must assess the targeted employees accordingly. The results following the assessment highlight possible competency gaps of the individual. From there, the organization utilizes the gaps to identify and design the most effective and suitable development opportunities to address the gaps. 5. Design the Leadership Development Plan In designing the leadership development plan, it is best to consult with the learning and development team to construct appropriate learning opportunities for employees. Ideally, incorporate as many learning solutions as possible to provide individuals with the best learning experience and environment. Introduce self-pace learning using various channels, and incorporate complementary leadership mentoring that enables a coaching relationship between an employee and a strong leader. The organization can also introduce job shadowing that provides an employee a realistic view of a job, and job rotation opportunities where employees assume a different role for a temporary period. The company can also utilize professional development and certification courses for employees. 6. Conduct Continuous Leadership Assessments Lastly, an organization needs to know whether or not the leadership development program is effective and serves its purpose of reaching its goals. As such, there must be a structure that allows the company to monitor employee progress during the leadership development process and determine their readiness to fulfill responsibilities after the plan. One way to do this is to use the 360-degree leadership assessment from stakeholders. The process ensures continuous feedback and engagement with employees to guarantee success. Company engagement enables an opportunity to improve the plan's objectives to satisfy organizational changes that leads to an employee becoming the leader that an organization needs.