By Jodi Blackwood, Practice Leader, Leadership Development

Key Takeaways

• Today’s most effective leadership strategies combine development and enablement to support both growth and day-to-day performance.
• Development builds readiness; enablement ensures leaders can apply what they’ve learned in real time.
• Integrating both into leadership strategies leads to stronger performance, greater alignment, and more confident leadership at every level.

For years, companies have relied on leadership development to prepare future leaders. But in world that’s moving faster than any training manual, development alone can’t keep pace. The leaders who thrive are those equipped, and enabled, to lead in real time.

Leadership development has long been the foundation for preparing leaders to grow into new roles. But today’s landscape requires more; the key to turning high-potential leaders into high-impact leaders lies in the intentional combination of leadership development and enablement.

It's not about choosing one or the other. The most effective strategies—including our own—are designed to develop leaders and enable them to lead in the moments that matter.

Leadership development builds the foundation

Leadership development is essential for building the skills, mindset, and strategic awareness they need to navigate complexity, inspire teams, and step into broader roles.

The role of development in leadership strategy:

• Builds core competencies
• Prepares leaders for current and future roles
• Strengthens the talent pipeline
• Lays the groundwork for growth

As leadership demands grow more complex, development itself has evolved from traditional training toward more immersive, applied, and continuous experiences.

We’ve embraced this evolution. Our development programs are built to go beyond preparation, incorporating coaching, real-world application, and embedded support that help leaders activate what they’ve learned in the flow of work. The result is a more connected, confident, and performance-ready leader.

Leadership enablement turns potential into performance

Where development prepares leaders, enablement provides the ongoing support that drives success within the leadership roles.

The role of enablement in leadership strategy:

• Provides clarity and guidance in applying new skills
• Supports the integration of learning into day-to-day leadership behaviors
• Aligns leadership outcomes to organizational and business strategy

The best leadership programs don’t stop at skill-building. They embed enablement into the experience. That’s exactly how we approach leadership:

• Leadership coaching that accelerates learning and builds confidence
• Interactive practice that connects insights to real-world decisions
• Cross-functional development that establishes peer-to-peer support networks for continuing growth and accountability

We don’t separate development and enablement. We integrate them so leadership growth becomes leadership impact.

And of course, enablement isn’t a silver bullet. Many organizations struggle to define ownership or measure its impact. But when development and enablement are aligned under a single leadership strategy, the result is measurable: faster transitions, higher engagement, and leaders who perform from day one.

Experience the power of leadership development + enablement

Leadership development is critical to building leadership readiness. But the key to turning capable leaders into impact multipliers is combining leadership development with leadership enablement.

When integrated thoughtfully, the two create a powerful foundation and support system for leaders to grow, perform, and lead effectively in real time.

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