October 2, 2025
In our current leadersad world, the costs of poor leadership are escalating dramatically on all levels and across the globe. I am often asked in leadership learning experiences I facilitate if we need a new kind of leadership, perhaps a new theory. My response is yes and no. Yes, we need high-road leaders now. No, don’t need a new leadership theory. We need to let go of myths about born leaders, superstar warriors, or answer people. The world is in dire need of an intentional commitment by leaders to developing leaders in all organizations. This requires leaders to lean on their primary superpower: the ability to create leaders at all levels of the organization, regardless of the organization.
Companies that prioritize continuous learning can realize extraordinary potential; those that don’t will stagnate.
Deanna Foster
Last Thursday’s leadership discussion on bridging the knowing-doing gap cited research from many organizations that leaders are often unsure of how to develop an intentional program of leadership development. In a 2024 article by Deanna Foster, How to Create a Successful Leadership Development Program in the Harvard Business Review, she writes, “As organizations evolve in response to technological advancement, external events, and generational paradigm shifts, it can feel like the only constant for leaders is change. If so, there is no greater leadership asset than the drive to keep learning. And there is much to learn. Companies that prioritize continuous learning can realize extraordinary potential; those that don’t will stagnate.
Learning at this scale doesn’t happen without a plan. It’s great to set development goals for leaders during yearly evaluations, but without a solid leadership development plan that directly connects to business outcomes, other priorities and distractions will take over.” Leadership development program content and design should be tailored to different leadership levels for maximum relevance and engagement. This HBR article lists excellent questions that any organization would be well-served to consider.
The first consideration in the intentional development of leaders is a framework for leadership development. A framework that provides structure and flexibility of approach, serving all levels and taking into account the importance of preparing all levels of leadership to continuously learn about future trends and be agile in the context of the times.
This Thursday’s Leadership insight offers a framework for intentional leadership development based on the Three C’s. The three C’s are Core, Capacity, and Context. An example of a leadership development framework, organized into three levels based on the three C’s, will be shared.
The Three C’s provide a series of questions that all leaders need to consider in any organization, and they are interwoven throughout all organizations.
Core -What do we stand for, what defines us
What do we value as an organization?
What is our purpose for being an organization?
What is our motivation as an organization?
What is our mindset -our world view as an organization
The core provides anchoring leadership in values, purpose, motivation, and a growth mindset, which is foundational to all the organization does. The core is a guiding light. Research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) shows that values alignment and clarity of purpose directly improve leader effectiveness, engagement, and ethical behavior.
Capacity: What capacities do we need to continually develop to be effective and create a sustainable learning organization?
Developing adaptive skills, decision-making, learnability, and emotional intelligence, as well as communication, coaching, and collective capacity, are supported by Korn Ferry’s Future Skills Matrix, which identifies continuous learning, self-management, and interpersonal acumen as vital for 21st-century leadership. Capacities will expand or contract based on the Context. Leadership, for example, probably doesn’t need to grow its capacities in communicating via telegraph, as Lincoln did during the American Civil War. Leaders today do need to develop capacity regarding AI.
Context: What is happening around us right now and in the future, and how do we respond?
Leading in the Context requires a committed, constant leadership development approach to learn by “looking up, down, and all around “in the organization, marketplace, community, country, and world. Learning to understand the current and ever-changing challenges as much as possible provides a learning connection and engagement that enables adaptation to challenges and the seizing of opportunities. Margaret Wheatley said it well, “All leadership is in the context. Relationships establish the context .”
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The three C’s form an interwoven framework for developing leaders and serving the organization. The core values, purpose, motivation, and mindset of leadership and the organization inform the capacities that leadership needs at all levels in the context of the time to create an effective, viable, and sustainable learning culture.
Tailoring leadership development for different organizational levels based on the three C’s framework ensures programs are directly relevant, sustainable, and maximize impact at every tier. Research and best practice consistently show that such differentiation addresses each group’s unique challenges and developmental needs.
Below is an example of using the Three C’s by Leadership Tier, as suggested in leadership research
Frontline Tier
Core: Focus on foundational values, self-awareness, and personal purpose, helping new leaders align their behavior with the organization’s culture and ethics.
Capacity: Emphasize basic leadership skills: team communication, conflict management, feedback, emotional intelligence, and practical coaching tools.
Context: Integrate training with daily operations—short workshops, microlearning, and scenario-based exercises closely tied to immediate team challenges.
Mid-Level Managers
Core: Deepen understanding of organizational mission, strategic mindset, and motivation; foster adaptive mindsets for leading through complexity.
Capacity: Broaden skill development to include cross-functional collaboration, change management, advanced problem-solving, and peer coaching.
Context: Utilize action learning, project-based assignments, and peer forums to address business unit and departmental goals, thereby bridging teams with executive strategy.
Senior Leadership
Core: Reaffirm personal values as organizational stewards; align leadership legacy, succession, and purpose-driven transformation.
Capacity: Enhance systems thinking, executive communication, influence, large-scale coaching, and board-level relational skills.
Context: Focus on sector trends, enterprise strategy, governance, and environmental scanning—providing mentoring, strategic forums, and thought partnership with other executives, professional organizations, and coaches and consultants
Customizing the Three C’s framework for each level creates a development system that’s practical, purpose-driven, and able to sustain leader effectiveness throughout the organization’s entire leadership pipeline. Intentional leadership development programs built on research-backed models and focused on core values, growing capacity, and context create meaningful change in leaders and organizations. By moving beyond chance and crafting a deliberate, ongoing process anchored in the Three C’s, organizations can develop leaders equipped for collective capacity and future-ready success.
The Leadership Questions for you are.
- Do you see the value of growing leadership and the organization
How can you start or enhance your leadership development using the three C’s