As Organisations Grow, Complexity Grows Even Faster — How to Close the Leadership Capability Gap

Growth is exciting — but it always brings complexity with it.

In every growing organisation, there comes a point when senior leaders can no longer hold everything themselves. The natural next step is to promote strong individual contributors and experts into people-manager roles. However, it is often underestimated that most new leaders struggle — not because they lack talent, but because the system around them has become more complex than they are prepared for.

Across growing organisations, gaps in these three critical areas repeatedly undermine leadership transitions:

✔ Clarity: What exactly is my role? What decisions am I responsible for? What does “good” leadership look like here?

✔ Capability: How do I shift from delivering tasks myself to enabling others to deliver?

✔ Systems Awareness: How do I lead within shifting expectations, competing priorities, evolving culture and rapid change?

Traditional leadership development tends to rely on models, frameworks or generic behavioural tips. But in today’s environments characterised by constant change and uncertainty, leaders need something different.

Effective leadership is not about controlling complexity — it’s about making sense of it.

It is about creating clarity, building trust, and enabling adaptability in environments where things rarely move in a straight line. Linear, overly simplified approaches fail because they overlook the realities leaders work within: context, interconnectedness and emergent dynamics. This aligns closely with the work of leadership scholar David V. Day on leader development, who emphasises that:

Leadership is a developmental, relational and contextual process shaped by interactions, environment and shared meaning.

Understood this way, leadership development must also shift. It is not merely about adding more techniques and tools — it requires strengthening a leader’s capacity to make sense of their environment and act effectively within it. Development approaches, therefore, need to reflect the realities leaders operate in — complexity, interdependence and ongoing change.

The patterns described here reflect a synthesis of leadership development research and repeated observations from practice across growing organisations, rather than a universal or prescriptive model.

Leadership development is most powerful when it is:

✔ Practical: Grounded in real work, real decisions and real organisational dynamics.

✔ Human-centred: Built on trust, clarity, purpose and communication — the essentials of meaningful leadership relationships.

✔ Evidence-informed: Reflecting how leaders actually develop over time, including identity shifts, social learning and sensemaking.

✔ System-aware: Helping leaders understand the underlying structures, patterns, relationships, expectations and cultural assumptions that shape behaviour — and identify where they can influence outcomes.

When these elements come together, leaders grow in ways that create meaningful, sustainable impact.

The capabilities new leaders need most:

✔ Seeing the System Behind the Symptoms: Most recurring challenges — such as friction, misalignment, slow decision-making and communication gaps — are system outputs, not individual failings. Leaders need the ability to step back and ask: “What is the system producing here?”

✔ Identifying the Conditions for Performance: High performance requires clarity, psychological safety, accountability and a shared sense of purpose. These conditions rarely emerge without intentional leadership.

✔ Shifting Behaviours and Interactions: Leadership happens in relationships. A single shift — how expectations are set, how tension is addressed, how decisions are cascaded — can transform the whole environment.

✔ Building an Actionable Path Forward: Leaders don’t need more complexity, they need developmental pathways, deliberate practice and concrete steps they can apply immediately with their team — and the confidence to follow through.

In practice, these capabilities are not developed through new insights alone. They grow through guided reflection on real leadership challenges, deliberate practice in everyday work, and support that helps leaders make sense of their specific organisational context.

Thus, over time, it becomes difficult to ignore that when leadership capability does not scale with organisational growth, the consequences often include stalled decision-making, rising friction, overwhelmed new managers, inconsistent performance, cultural drift and even talent loss.

As organisations continue to grow, leadership capability must evolve at the same pace.

Strengthening leadership capability at this moment is not a nice-to-have — it is a strategic investment in how people and organisations grow together.

Sources:

Day, D. V. (2024). Developing Leaders and Leadership : Principles, Practices, and Processes. Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-59068-9

Decock, Ü. (2025). Business Start-Up for Sustainable Organizational Change. College of Arts and Cultural Studies Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Projects. 7. https://digitalshowcase.oru.edu/coacs_dsl_projects/7

#LeadershipDevelopment #SystemsThinking #OrganisationalDevelopment #Culture #PeopleManagers #AdaptiveLeadership #Complexity

How To Turn DEI Rhetoric Into Tangible Results?

As we navigate disruptions and societal change, workplaces where everyone feels valued, supported, and empowered have become imperative. Organizations recognize more than ever before the need to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Moreover, studies show that DEI has become a compelling business case where higher diversity and inclusion substantially increase financial performance (Beich, 2022). Nevertheless, despite widespread acknowledgment and the significant amount of time and money spent on DEI efforts, translating rhetoric into action and tangible results remains a formidable challenge for many organizations.

To ensure DEI efforts are successful, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) recommends making it a part of a broader organizational strategy, which means that good intentions are transformed into sustainable behavior change through clear goals, accountability, and success measures. However, for tangible influence and results, more is required. DEI must be experienced in the organization's everyday life, where people feel committed to one another and the organization (2022). In other words, merely promoting inclusion is not enough; individuals must also experience, perceive, and feel a genuine sense of inclusion and belonging – fulfilling fundamental human needs (Kennedy & Jain-Link 2021).

Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy (n.d.) concluded in their case study of Cairn that DEI is not just about organizational initiatives; it requires a shift in assumptions and values toward a culture of belonging. Cairn started by assessing the organization and redefined leadership, how they attract, develop, and retain talent, and how the everyday job is done. They made intentional, continuous efforts and investments in long-term behavioral change.

The organization's journey toward building a culture of belonging is multifaceted, requiring efforts at all levels of the organization. How would you transform DEI rhetoric into tangible results?

References

Beich, E. (2022). ATD's Handbook for Training and Talent Development (3rd ed.). ATD Press.

Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy. (n.d.). Industry Case Study. Oregon State University. Retrieved February 21, 2024, from: https://outdooreconomy.oregonstate.edu/case-study

Kennedy, J. T. and Jain-Link, P. (2021, June 21). What Does It Take To Build a Culture of Belonging? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-does-it-take-to-build-a-culture-of-belonging

Coaching Culture: Growth Catalyst Woven Into Daily Work

Today’s rapidly changing landscapes and technologies increase skills and talent shortages. More than ever, businesses must find practical and creative ways to develop their people to attract and retain talent and achieve their growth objectives. Juggling the individual development needs of employees, the organizational goals, and understanding that traditional classroom or online module learning fills only a part of the demand, we need to think outside the box. Let us imagine a workplace where learning is not limited to isolated training sessions but is masterfully woven into daily work. Here, pursuing knowledge is not an obligation. It is a shared commitment to achieve excellent performance.

To meet the challenge, the Association of Talent Development advises organizations to grow talent in the workplace through a learning ecosystem, which allows employees to interact with the personalized learning content, data, and technologies that facilitate and deliver learning experiences aligned with organizational governance (Beich, 2022). Indeed, modern learning ecosystems have proven in practice the potential to enable continuous learning and growth, increasing employee engagement and performance, and can be regarded as a cornerstone of transformative workplace culture. Nevertheless, while its effectiveness depends heavily on the underlying technologies, a key concern is to align the learning with the organization’s vision, mission, and strategy (2022). In other words, how does continuous learning catalyze strategic business growth?

A Case Study: Davines Group

Davines Group, an Italian premium hair and skin care company with a relatively broad international reach, sets an excellent example of expanding the business through learning. A case study reveals how Performance Consultants (n.d.) helped their leaders and teams unlock their potential daily. They enabled a collaborative, purpose-driven, high-performance coaching culture. Results were highly positive, with business growth surpassing expectations. Following coaching conversations, business area performance increased by 55% and turnover by 22%. Business leaders reported an excellent customer loyalty and satisfaction score (+67.5) and efficiency (1328% ROI). The case study reveals that the project was implemented through the following:

• 360-degree impact assessments helped leaders become aware of their leadership styles and define individual objectives;

• Transformational leadership training provided leaders with tools to foster a coaching mindset;

• Leaders received coaching sessions, which started with a debrief on their 360-degree impact assessment feedback;

• Follow-up sessions were held to support leaders to meet their objectives;

• After each step of the project implementation, participant surveys were used to facilitate continuous feedback;

• Evaluation sessions at the end of the project allowed leaders to reflect on personal and organizational benefits.

The case of the Davines Group demonstrates how organizational coaching can facilitate continuous learning, provide employee development, grow talent internally, and raise employee engagement. Inspired by this, let us explore how integrated coaching systems can be implemented to catalyze strategic business growth through two critical areas such as performance and talent retention.

Coaching for Improved Performance

The case of the Davines Group demonstrates how coaching is used to enhance the achievement of an organization’s strategic goals. It is worth noting that Performance Consultants, who led the Davines Group to integrate coaching into their organization, was co-founded by workplace coaching pioneer John Whitmore (1937–2017). His seminal work introduced the GROW model, which provides a framework for the four action-focused stages: goal, reality, options, and way forward (Wang et al., 2022). Besides collecting data that is fundamental for assessing professional development needs and behavior caps to improve an organization’s performance (Beich, 2022), 360-degree impact assessments enabled the leaders in Davines Group to set goals, assess reality in the context of organizational goals, explore improvement opportunities, and decide a way forward.

The effectiveness of an integrated coaching system and improved performance depends mainly on how we train leaders for their daily one-on-ones and foster a coaching mindset and culture. While culture significantly influences how people in the organization interpret events and perform tasks, implementing culture change rests upon organizational trust; therefore, neuro-leadership science advises fostering simultaneously leadership strategies that generate trust, such as (Pittman, 2020):

• Recognizing excellence and celebrating relationships;

• Setting reasonable expectations for performance;

• Providing discretion in performing tasks;

• Encouraging “job crafting” and alignment;

• Communicating, listening, and sharing;

• Building authentic relationships;

• Facilitating whole-person growth (personal growth);

• Leading with integrity and humbleness.

A Key to Well-Being and Talent Retention

Today's organizational landscape is marked by recognizing that trust and employee well-being are critical factors in productivity, innovation, and retention. When Davines Group implemented a coaching culture, their employee well-being and overall satisfaction blossomed – 93% of 80% of employees who participated in the employee engagement survey expressed 2021 pride in working for Davines Group, compared to 2019, where these percentages were respectively 63 and 55%. Their employee retention improved significantly (387% ROI).

The success of Davines Group can be explained by the findings of a recent systematic literature review, which identifies that the key predictors of employee happiness and engagement are employee role, employee skills and career management, supervision support, and social relationships; coaching has here a pivotal role and is essential in enhancing transversal and social skills (Salvadorinho & Teixeira, 2023, p. 2790). Therefore, a technology ecosystem that aligns with the identified predictors of engagement integrates coaching seamlessly into daily work and is supported by a genuine coaching culture, which has the potential to boost employee well-being and engagement.

What Is Your Way Forward?

As we delve into the compelling case study of the Davines Group, the transformative power of integrated coaching systems becomes vividly apparent. The Davines Group demonstrates how coaching, seamlessly woven into daily organizational operations, unlocks potential and propels growth beyond expectations. However, the journey does not end here. Let us ask ourselves – what is our goal as talent development professionals, what is the reality we confront, and what options lay before us?

As we navigate the intricate terrain of continuous improvement and growth, the path forward invites us to foster learning and trust. Consider how your current strategies align with your organization's vision, mission, and strategy. Finally, what actions will you take to elevate performance and retain talent? Let us wove the growth catalyst into the daily work.

References

Beich, E. (2022). ATD’s Handbook for Training and Talent Development (3rd ed.). ATD Press.

Performance Consultants. (n.d.). High-Performance Coaching Culture. Retrieved February 2, 2024, from https://www.performanceconsultants.com/creating-a-high-performance-coaching-culture-davines-case-study

Pittman, A. (2020). Leadership Rebooted: Cultivating Trust with the Brain in Mind. Human Service Organizations, Management, Leadership & Governance, 44(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2019.1696910

Salvadorinho, J., & Teixeira, L. (2023). Happy and Engaged Workforce in Industry 4.0: A New Concept of Digital Tool for HR Based on Theoretical and Practical Trends. Sustainability, 15(3), 2781-2809. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032781

Wang, Q., Lai, Y.-L., Xu, X., & McDowall, A. (2022). The Effectiveness of Workplace Coaching: A Meta-Analysis of Contemporary Psychologically Informed Coaching Approaches. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 14(1), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWAM-04-2021-0030