Inclusion sounds simple.
But doing it well takes thought, intention, and leadership.

In a recent conversation, Bernardo Ferdman unpacked what inclusion truly means in organizations—and why it’s more than just being “invited to the meeting.”

As Bernardo puts it:

“When people are included in everything—every email, every meeting—that’s a recipe for chaos.”

Inclusion isn’t about volume. It’s about value.

At Berman Leadership, we believe inclusion means creating systems, spaces, and mindsets where every individual feels:

• Safe to contribute
• Valued for their input
• Able to bring their full potential to the collective work

“It’s about building environments that are mutually beneficial—where people can really belong.”

True inclusion isn’t just a DEI initiative. It’s a leadership imperative. Because teams perform best when people feel respected, heard, and aligned—across all kinds of differences.

And while inclusion is for everyone, it’s also challenging:
It involves navigating paradoxes, adapting systems, and rethinking what belonging looks like in practice.

But when leaders embrace that complexity, the rewards are transformational.

Explore how we coach leaders to foster true inclusion:
https://bermanleadership.com/our-approach

Why Developing Great Leaders Matters

Think about the best boss you ever had. Perhaps it was someone like Warren, a manager who, on a sleeting Christmas Eve, surprised an employee by sending him home early with full pay. That kind of appreciation inspires people to work harder than anyone else.

Imagine an entire company filled with leaders like Warren. That’s the power of great leadership.

To develop great leaders, the focus must be on core strategies like cultivating self-awareness, committing to continuous learning, mastering communication, building strong relationships, and actively seeking opportunities to lead. Leadership isn’t just about managing tasks; it’s about influencing and inspiring people to achieve a shared purpose. It’s about cultivating more leaders, not just followers. This guide will show you how.

I’m Bill Berman. For over 30 years, as an executive coach and organizational psychologist, I’ve helped individuals and teams develop great leaders by blending management experience with deep psychological insights.

The Foundation: Understanding the Core of Great Leadership

This section establishes the essential qualities and distinctions that define effective leadership, moving beyond titles to focus on impact and influence.

The Essential Traits of an Effective Leader

When I work with clients at senior levels a common question is: “What can I do to be an excellent leader?” From my perspective as an organizational psychologist, it’s not about a title or being the loudest voice. It’s a blend of traits and skills that empower individuals to inspire and guide others.

The bedrock of leadership is profound self-awareness—a deep understanding of your personality, behaviors, and emotions. This is the foundation of emotional intelligence, the ability to perceive and manage your own emotions and those of others, which is vital for building trust and resolving conflict.

Other non-negotiable traits include integrity (honesty and transparency), a clear vision that inspires others, and masterful communication. This means speaking clearly, but more importantly, listening actively to understand meaning and intent. Finally, resilience is key. Leaders must adapt to challenges, learn from setbacks, and guide their teams through transitions with confidence.

The best leaders I’ve seen consistently communicate clearly, are passionate about their work, and prioritize organizational needs. They stay open to new ideas, support their employees, and always lead by example. For more insights on what makes someone a good leader, I often point clients to resources like Real Time Leadership. If you’re looking to cultivate these traits, personalized guidance can make all the difference. That’s why I offer Executive Coaching at Berman Leadership – to help you open up your full potential.

Leadership vs. Management: Why the Distinction Matters

“There may not be an ‘I’ in team, but there is an ‘I’ in disengaged.” This quip highlights a fundamental truth: organizational success hinges on differentiating between leadership and management. While the terms are often used interchangeably, understanding their distinct roles is crucial for cultivating effective teams.

The simplest way I explain it is this: management is about control, while leadership is about influence. A manager’s primary focus is on facilitating processes and ensuring tasks are completed efficiently. They control resources and maintain day-to-day operations.

Leadership, on the other hand, is about inspiring others toward a common purpose. It’s about influencing and motivating people, focusing on the “why” behind the work. This is the core difference between inspiring vs. directing and focusing on people vs. processes.

Here’s a table I often use to illustrate the difference:

While these roles are distinct, they are complementary. A great leader needs management capabilities, and a great manager can display leadership qualities. As some have wisely noted, Leadership and management can work together, but they are not the same thing. The key is to understand which hat you’re wearing and when. My goal is to help individuals and organizations foster both, creating a powerful synergy that truly helps to develop great leaders.

The Path to Growth: How to Actively Develop Great Leaders

So, you’ve grasped the core of what makes a great leader. Now, how do we actually get there? Leadership isn’t something you’re simply born with; it’s a craft honed through intentional effort and continuous learning.

This next section is your roadmap. It’s about practical steps for both individuals and organizations to actively develop great leaders. Think of it as cultivating a garden: you need the right conditions to help those leadership seeds blossom.

Start with Self-Awareness to Develop Great Leaders

In my decades of coaching, I’ve learned that to develop great leaders, you must first start with yourself. The first step is cultivating profound self-awareness. It’s the cornerstone of effective leadership because it enables clearer communication, better decision-making, and more effective emotional regulation.

Self-awareness means knowing your personality, behaviors, and emotions. It’s about understanding what motivates you, what your strengths are, and where you might struggle. This is where emotional intelligence comes into play—the ability to recognize and manage your own emotions, and then to understand and positively influence the emotions of those around you.

I advise my clients to engage in consistent self-reflection. This is a deliberate practice of looking inward to understand how your actions impact others and what triggers your reactions. This process helps you process feedback and show up more authentically as a leader. Another powerful aspect of self-awareness is identifying your strengths. While acknowledging weaknesses is important, the most effective leaders lead with their strengths, leveraging their natural talents to bring authenticity to their leadership.

For anyone looking to deepen this understanding, a structured assessment can be incredibly insightful. If this resonates with you, I encourage you to Take the assessment today with Berman Leadership. And for organizations looking to nurture their rising stars, our High Potential Development at Berman Leadership programs are designed to build on these foundational insights.

Cultivate Skills Through Practice and Continuous Learning

Once you’ve started on the journey of self-awareness, the next step to develop great leaders is the relentless pursuit of skill cultivation. Leadership requires a mindset of ongoing improvement.

One of the most vital skills is active listening. This goes beyond hearing words; it means seeking to understand intent, noticing non-verbal cues, and asking thoughtful questions. Strong leaders are good communicators, but they are even better listeners. As I always say, Communication starts with active listening.

Closely related is the practice of seeking feedback. This can be uncomfortable, but it’s an indispensable catalyst for growth. Leaders who are open to constructive critique are the ones who truly evolve. Leadership development also demands deliberate practice—using every opportunity to learn and experiment with new behaviors. It’s about applying what you learn in real-world scenarios, making it stick. Finally, the role of mentorship cannot be overstated. Seeking out experienced leaders who can offer guidance and share their wisdom is invaluable.

At Berman Leadership, we often talk about the “Three E’s” framework: Environment, Equipping, and Exposure. It highlights that leadership is often more caught than taught. My team and I are passionate about helping you accept this continuous growth, and that’s why we offer programs like Lead at the Next Level with Berman Leadership to support you on this journey.

How to Develop Great Leaders by Seeking Opportunities

Cultivating leadership skills isn’t just about theory; it’s about putting yourself in situations where you must lead. To truly develop great leaders, individuals need to actively seek out opportunities to practice and hone their abilities.

One of the most effective ways to do this is through stretch assignments—tasks that push you outside your comfort zone, requiring you to learn new skills or manage complex situations. Leading projects within your current role, even small ones, provides invaluable hands-on experience in delegation, motivation, and conflict resolution. Beyond your professional responsibilities, volunteering in your community or joining professional organizations can provide rich leadership development opportunities in a different context. Finally, participating in cross-functional teams exposes you to diverse perspectives and strengthens your ability to lead complex initiatives.

The key is to proactively look for these chances. Each new experience contributes to your growth. For those ready to hit the ground running in new leadership roles, our Leadership Acceleration Onboarding at Berman Leadership is designed to help you quickly integrate and start making an impact.

Overcoming Problems: Navigating Common Leadership Challenges

In my decades of guiding leaders, I’ve seen that the journey to develop great leaders is rarely a straight line. It’s filled with challenges that demand resilience and a genuine understanding of people. Let’s explore some common problems and how to steer them.

Leading Diverse Teams is a modern reality. This diversity is a strength, but it can bring communication challenges. The strategy is to build a culture of respect and inclusion, where leaders understand what each member brings and value every viewpoint. This requires high emotional intelligence and a flexible communication style.

With diversity comes the need for Handling Conflict. Disagreements are inevitable. My approach focuses on creating psychological safety—an environment where people feel safe to speak up. When conflict arises, a leader’s role is to listen deeply and guide the conversation toward a constructive resolution. If you’re dreading those conversations, you might find this resource helpful: How to Give Feedback—Especially When You’re Dreading it.

Decision Fatigue can catch leaders off guard. Constant decision-making, often under pressure, is draining. To counter this, I encourage leaders to prioritize, delegate, and trust their teams. It’s also vital to build the courage to make difficult decisions for the greater good.

In a world of constant flux, Adapting to Change is non-negotiable. Leaders must not only accept change but also guide their teams through transitions with confidence. This requires adaptability and “learning agility”—the skill of knowing what to do even when you don’t know what to do.

Underlying all these challenges is the crucial task of Building Trust. Without trust, communication breaks down and engagement plummets. Building trust means being consistent, transparent, and showing genuine care for your team’s well-being.

Navigating these challenges calls for a custom, psychology-based approach. This is what my team of experienced coaches and I at Berman Leadership provide. You can Meet Our Coaches at Berman Leadership to learn more. We help leaders craft robust, personalized strategies to overcome any mission-critical situation.

The Organizational Imperative: Creating a Culture of Leadership

I once worked with a VP who was frustrated with her company’s leadership development. “We’re spending a fortune on programs,” she said, “but nothing’s sticking. Our people return to environments that don’t support what they’ve learned.”

Her challenge illustrates a fundamental truth: individual development withers without organizational support. To truly develop great leaders, companies must create an ecosystem that nurtures growth at every level.

This ecosystem starts with senior leadership commitment. When executives actively participate, mentor others, and visibly invest their time, it sends a powerful message. It shows that developing people is as important as developing products. Leadership development must also be aligned with business strategy. The most successful initiatives directly address the organization’s specific challenges, ensuring that the skills being developed will impact performance.

Creating psychological safety is another critical pillar. Leaders need safe spaces to experiment, fail, and learn. This means fostering environments where asking questions is encouraged and taking calculated risks is celebrated. Finally, this requires thoughtful resource allocation. Organizations need to invest in coaching and development programs, but they also need to provide time for reflection, opportunities for stretch assignments, and access to mentorship. As research highlights in guides on Developing Organizational Leaders, sustainable development requires both financial investment and structural support.

I often tell clients that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not just more followers. When organizations combine senior commitment, strategic alignment, psychological safety, and comprehensive resources, they create a self-sustaining culture of growth.

This comprehensive approach is exactly what we focus on in our Leadership Development Programs at Berman Leadership. We work with organizations to build these foundational elements, creating environments where leadership becomes woven into the fabric of daily work.

Frequently Asked Questions about Developing Leaders

Are great leaders born or made?

This is a timeless question. From my perspective as an organizational psychologist, the answer is a blend of both. While some individuals may have natural traits that lend themselves to leadership, the most crucial qualities are absolutely developed. Skills like navigating conflict, inspiring a diverse team, or mastering organizational dynamics are honed over time through real-world experience, continuous feedback, and intentional practice. So, while you might have a natural inclination, the journey to truly develop great leaders is a cultivated one.

How can an organization measure the effectiveness of leadership development?

Measuring the impact of leadership development is essential. It’s about looking beyond workshop attendance to tangible business results. A key area is improvements in key business metrics, such as productivity, employee engagement, and talent retention. Beyond these quantitative measures, qualitative data is equally vital. This includes using tools like 360-degree feedback assessments, which offer a comprehensive view of a leader’s performance. Regular performance reviews and qualitative surveys can track the application of new skills and behavioral changes over time, ensuring that development initiatives lead to a stronger, more positive corporate culture.

What is the single most important skill for a new leader to develop?

If I had to choose one foundational skill for a new leader, it would be self-awareness. It is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence and the starting point for all other leadership development. A leader who understands their own strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and emotional triggers is better equipped to manage their reactions, make sound decisions, and communicate effectively. Without self-awareness, feedback can feel like a personal attack rather than a growth opportunity. It is the key that open ups authentic leadership and the first step to truly develop great leaders.

Conclusion: Your Journey to Exceptional Leadership Starts Now

Think back to Warren, the manager who sent his employee home early on a sleeting Christmas Eve. That simple act of recognition created loyalty that lasted years. Imagine if every leader in your organization had that same intuitive understanding of what it means to care for their people. That’s the change we’re talking about when we develop great leaders.

Throughout this guide, we’ve explored how leadership is about inspiring rather than controlling. We’ve seen that effective leaders start with deep self-awareness, continuously hone their skills, and actively seek opportunities to grow. They steer challenges with resilience and emotional intelligence.

But leadership development isn’t a destination. It’s a continuous journey of growth, self-findy, and service to others. The shift from managing tasks to inspiring people requires courage—the vulnerability to ask for feedback and the humility to admit mistakes.

At Berman Leadership, we’ve seen this change happen countless times. When leaders accept our psychology-based approach, combining deep self-awareness with practical business skills, the results speak for themselves. Teams become more engaged, innovation flourishes, and organizations build a sustainable leadership pipeline.

Your leadership journey starts with a single step: the decision to grow. The world needs great leaders now more than ever. The question isn’t whether you have what it takes—it’s whether you’re willing to do the work to develop great leaders, starting with yourself.

Ready to take that next step? Explore Our Solutions and let’s work together to open up the leadership potential that already exists within you and your organization.

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant frontier, it is embedded in the daily operations of organizations, transforming how decisions are made, how work is performed, and how leadership is exercised. As AI technologies evolve rapidly, leaders face a new imperative: to understand not just the capabilities of AI, but its implications for people, culture, and the future of their workforce. This paper describes what we see as the most pressing leadership issues in the age of AI, drawing on contemporary insights and frameworks for organizational life.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a Metaphor for AI Adoption

Unpacking the Metaphor

We are not the master of our tools. The story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice offers a vivid lens through which to view the leadership challenges brought on by AI. In the tale, the apprentice, eager to harness magical power, sets forces in motion that rapidly spiral beyond their control. Without the wisdom and restraint of the master sorcerer, the apprentice becomes overwhelmed by the very tools meant to empower them.

For today’s leaders, this metaphor carries profound relevance. The rush to adopt AI often comes with great enthusiasm and ambition—an eagerness to solve complex problems, boost productivity, and gain a competitive edge. Yet, like the apprentice, leaders may lack the full understanding of the technology’s intricacies, its unforeseen ripple effects, and the deeper ethical considerations at stake.

• Unintended Consequences: Just as the apprentice’s enchantment leads to chaos, hasty or unexamined deployment of AI can result in disruptions to workflow, loss of institutional knowledge, or new forms of inequality. Without careful oversight, automation may replicate biases, erode trust, or undermine morale.
• Responsibility and Stewardship: The apprentice’s predicament highlights the critical need for responsible stewardship. Leaders must balance innovation with caution, setting ethical boundaries and ensuring that AI serves the organization’s values rather than dictating them.
• Continuous Learning: The sorcerer represents wisdom built on experience and reflection. Leaders in the age of AI must commit to ongoing learning—not just about technology itself, but about its impact on people, culture, and community. This means asking hard questions, anticipating unintended consequences, and being prepared to intervene when things go awry.
• Empowerment vs. Control: The apprentice sought empowerment but quickly discovered the limits of AI offers unprecedented power, but true leadership lies in knowing when to guide, when to restrain, and when to adapt. Leaders must recognize that technological mastery is inseparable from human judgment and empathy.

Ultimately, the metaphor of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a cautionary tale for leaders: wielding powerful new tools requires humility, wisdom, and a steadfast commitment to the well-being of those affected by their decisions. In the age of AI, the real magic lies not in unchecked ambition, but in thoughtful stewardship and ethical leadership. Although the deployment of AI is inevitable, organizations and their leaders have the agency to shape its effects on individuals and the workplace with intention.
 

Our Response – A Framework of Opportunity for AI Leadership

Our conversations with leaders about AI have led us to build a framework of opportunity for leaders to hold important conversations inside their organizations about the real impacts of AI deployment. This framework has 4 elements Capability, Care, Connection, and Community.
 

Capability

AI challenges the relevance of human expertise. Tasks once considered uniquely human—writing, designing, analyzing—can now be performed by algorithms. As AI expands, individuals may feel disconnected from their sense of professional value. Critical questions arise: What does it mean to be capable in an AI-enhanced workplace? How can the dignity of human contribution be preserved when machines outperform people in certain domains? How will we as leaders respond to the impact of a loss of human capability of those we lead?

Care

The integration of AI risks reducing people to plug-and-play components. When employees are viewed merely as bundles of skills to be deployed on demand, the relational fabric of organizations frays. This shift can undermine both how individuals care about their work and how organizations care for their people. How will we prevent the inevitable adoption of AI from eroding empathy, trust, and psychological safety?

Connection

AI lacks emotional investment in its own outcomes. Our work “is an issue for us”, it’s not for the robot. While it can generate content, solve problems, and optimize processes, its outcomes don’t matter to it. Meaning in work derives from pride, ownership, and emotional resonance. What can we do to design roles and workflows that preserve the human experience of accomplishment and purpose for those using AI?

Community

Status and belonging remain central to groups and therefore to organizational life. As AI flattens hierarchies and disrupts traditional markers of expertise, individuals’ sense of identity and place may be threatened. How can we as leaders foster inclusive communities where every individual feels valued, even as roles and contributions are redefined by the rise of AI?

Ethical Leadership in the Age of AI

Ethics is not a peripheral concern—it stands at the core of leadership in the AI era. Leaders must move beyond technical and economic considerations to embrace moral and philosophical questions. What are the human factors impacting responsible AI adoption? How can fairness, transparency, and accountability be ensured? How do we engage our workforce in new ways to support these outcomes? These are not hypothetical questions; they demand immediate and thoughtful attention.

Toward a Human-Centered Response

A central principle for leadership in the AI age is clear: AI may be happening to organizations, but the response remains a matter of choice and stewardship. Leaders must reclaim their role as stewards of culture, meaning, and human dignity, embracing courage, curiosity, and a commitment to asking essential questions—even when answers remain elusive.
 

Conclusion

The ultimate goal is not merely to make work easier, but to make it matter.

For leaders the starting point is clear, develop a contextual understanding of AI’s opportunities and risks, set ethical guardrails, create space for dialogue with your teams, and measure not only efficiency but also human impact. The real test of leadership in the age of AI is not how fast we adopt it, but how intentionally we shape its effects on people and culture.

Leaders must rise to this challenge, not as sorcerers, but as thoughtful guides attuned to the power of their tools and the humanity of their teams.

Michael Molinaro

Partner, Berman Leadership Development New York City, August 2025

What is Executive Coaching and Why Does It Matter?

Executive coaching is a powerful partnership that helps leaders open up their full potential and drive significant results. It’s a focused, confidential process where a skilled coach works one-on-one with an executive. The goal is clear: to foster behavioral change and growth for the economic benefit of both the individual and the organization.

Why is this important? Because when leaders grow, companies grow. Executive coaching brings huge benefits:

• Increased Individual Performance: Coaching can boost a leader’s performance by up to 70%.
• Improved Business Measures: A study found 77% of executives saw improvements in at least one key business measure after coaching, especially in productivity and employee satisfaction.
• Significant ROI: Research on executive coaching has shown improvements in retention, promotion, and team effectiveness.

In today’s ever-changing business world, leaders face unique challenges. They often feel isolated, and the demands on them are constantly shifting. Executive coaching offers a vital space for self-reflection, strategic thinking, and personal growth. It helps leaders steer uncertainty, build key skills, and inspire their teams to achieve more.

My name is Bill Berman. With over 30 years as an executive coach, senior line manager, and academic, I’ve had the privilege of advising executives from top firms in financial services, pharmaceuticals, and technology, helping them integrate psychological expertise with business acumen.

What Is Executive Coaching and How Is It Different?

Imagine having a dedicated partner whose sole purpose is to help you open up your best self. That’s precisely what executive coaching offers. At its heart, it’s a powerful partnership where we work together in a thought-provoking and creative process. The goal? To inspire you to truly maximize your personal and professional potential. We bring the science of psychology and hands-on business experience to optimize people and organizations.

Unlike being told what to do, our approach to executive coaching blends powerful questions with experience-based challenge and psychological insights. It is a journey focused on the future, driven entirely by the goals you set with your coach and manager. We look forward, moving you closer to where you want to be. This means we focus on behavioral change and growth that brings real, tangible benefits for you and your organization. It’s not just about feeling better; it’s about performing better and seeing clear business results. That’s why investing in leaders through coaching is so crucial for companies today. You can dive deeper into our specific approach to executive coaching on my What is Executive Coaching? page.

The Role of an Executive Coach

So, what does an executive coach actually do? Think of me as your most trusted confidant and strategic partner. I act as a thought partner, providing a confidential space where you can freely explore ideas, challenge old assumptions, and gain incredible clarity without any judgment. I’m also your accountability partner, gently but firmly helping you stay on track with your commitments and actions.

Our job is to help you learn and grow. We combine objective assessments, multi-rater (“360”) feedback, stakeholder insights, and thought-provoking questions to help you see yourself and your organization in a new light. I’ll help you spot both challenges and exciting opportunities. And perhaps most importantly, I’ll provide the kind of honest, constructive feedback and insights that leaders rarely receive from anyone else within their own organizations. This whole process is designed to help you uncover any hidden talents and discover blind spots in order to help you achieve your full potential. For more insights into this dynamic partnership, you might find my Journal Article: Coaching Founders and C-Suite Executives quite valuable.

Executive Coaching vs. Other Development Models

Many talent leaders struggle with when to use executive coaching versus other forms of professional development. While they all aim to help you grow, their core approaches and goals are quite different. Let’s clear up how executive coaching truly stands apart.

Here’s a simple way to look at how executive coaching compares to other common models:

As you can see, my role as an executive coach is firmly focused on your growth and your ability to lead effectively within your business context. Our coaches bring a deep understanding of psychological science and/or business experience to our work, applied with a forward-looking, business-centric lens. We will focus on helping you to master your leadership challenges and achieve your organizational goals. For an even deeper dive into the differences, particularly between coaching and consulting, you might find my Journal Article: Executive Coaching and Consulting helpful.

The Transformative Benefits of Executive Coaching

For the Individual Leader

Executive coaching is a catalyst for rapid, sustainable growth. Research on coaching in organizations report performance gains on multiple measures. In practice, leaders sharpen strategic thinking, make faster decisions, and communicate with greater clarity. Coaching also lifts emotional intelligence (EQ)—helping you spot blind spots, self-regulate under pressure, and build stronger relationships. The net result is accelerated career momentum and greater resilience.

For the Organization

When leaders improve, teams follow. Higher-performing managers drive better collaboration, stronger engagement, and lower turnover. Research regularly shows coaching benefits both the executive and their team with greater engagement, higher satisfaction, and more productive teamwork. Coaching also shortens the ramp-up time for newly promoted or external hires, strengthens the succession pipeline, and helps create a culture of accountability and continuous learning. Explore how these gains ripple across teams in our Team Coaching Solutions page.

The Executive Coaching Process: What to Expect

A typical engagement runs three overlapping phases. Each step is customized to the individual and organizational client, confidential, and anchored to objective business outcomes. Our engagements do not just take place in meetings; the client has work to do between sessions, engaging in activities and building skills that will carry them forward.

1. Assessment – After an initial chemistry session, we use a comprehensive interview, survey- or interview-based 360° feedback, and objective assessment tools to define clear, organization-aligned objectives.
2. Collaboration and Contracting – We work with the individual client, their manager, and representatives of human capital to develop a completely individualized Professional Development Plan to guide the coaching work and ensure stakeholder alignment.
3. Coaching Proper – Sixty- or ninety-minute meetings take place every two to three weeks over a six-month period. Our experienced coaches tailor their approach to the unique needs of the executive, using a range of methods and systems to best help the executive achieve their goals.

Who Needs an Executive Coach and What Challenges Are Addressed?

You might be wondering, “Is executive coaching right for me?” In my experience, almost anyone setting their sights on leading at a higher level and optimizing their teams’ effectiveness can benefit from this focused support. All it requires is a desire to improve, an openness to self-awareness, and a commitment to the work. It’s about investing in yourself and your potential, no matter where you are on your leadership journey.

Ideal Candidates for Executive Coaching

I’ve had the privilege of working with a diverse range of leaders across various sectors, including pharma, insurance, legal, industrials, finance, investment, and corporate environments. While the benefits of executive coaching are broad, certain leaders often find it particularly transformative at specific junctures in their careers.

This includes C-suite executives and senior leaders. Those at the highest levels often face unique pressures and isolation. They need a trusted, confidential sounding board to steer complex challenges, refine their strategic thinking, and ensure their leadership has the desired ripple effect across the organization.

We also see tremendous impact with newly promoted leaders and executives transitioning into new roles. The ramp-up time for new executives can be significantly reduced with coaching, accelerating their success in crucial first 100 days. Coaching helps them adapt to new responsibilities, build confidence, and quickly make an impact.

Then there are the high-potential employees. These individuals are being groomed for greater responsibilities. Coaching helps them develop the necessary skills and mindset to step into leadership roles successfully, uncovering blind spots and changing unwanted behaviors before they become ingrained.

And let’s not forget business founders and entrepreneurs. Starting and scaling a business comes with immense challenges, from strategic decisions to managing growth and people. Coaching provides founders with the guidance to ask the right questions, maximize impact, and maintain balance in their lives. My Journal Article: Coaching C-Suite Executives and Business Founders digs deeper into this specific area.

Common Leadership Challenges Addressed

Leaders come to executive coaching with a wide array of problems, but many fall into distinct patterns. My custom, psychology-based solutions are designed to address these mission-critical leadership challenges directly.

Are you finding it hard to move beyond the day-to-day and truly focus on the bigger picture? Many leaders seek coaching to improve their strategic thinking and decision-making, learning to make better choices and develop a clearer vision, all while enhancing delegation and clarifying accountability.

Perhaps you’re looking to inspire your team or influence stakeholders more effectively. Communication skills are a frequent focus, ranging from improving public speaking and active listening to providing feedback that truly lands.

Then there’s the art of executive presence. Coaching helps you develop the gravitas, confidence, and authenticity needed to command respect and lead effectively, ensuring your leadership truly resonates.

Building and inspiring a high-performing team is another common goal. We work on team leadership and development, fostering collaboration, instilling an ownership culture, and resolving conflicts. As I often say, productivity issues are often management problems, not just productivity problems.

Navigating the complexities of an organization can be daunting. We help leaders with navigating organizational politics and change management, guiding them through turbulent times, leading through rapid change, and building resilience.

Finally, in today’s demanding world, many leaders grapple with work-life balance and preventing burnout. Coaching provides strategies for managing energy, setting healthy boundaries, and maintaining well-being to sustain long-term effectiveness.

My goal is to empower you to face these challenges head-on, changing them into opportunities for growth and breakthrough.

How to Choose the Right Executive Coach

Selecting a coach is less about flashy methods and more about fit, credibility, and trust.

1. Credentials That Matter

• Strong academic grounding. 90% of our coaches have advanced degrees including MBAs, PhDs, and MDs.
• All of our coaches are certified by one of the major coach accrediting bodies (e.g., ICF, BCC) or are doctoral level organizational psychologists.
• Many have attended programs like NYU’s MS in Executive Coaching & Organizational Consulting or Columbia University’s coaching program, and all of them have advanced training in multiple assessments and caoching methodologies.
• Two thirds of our coaches have more than 2,000 coaching experience, and more than 30% have more than 10,000 hours of coaching!

2. Relevant Experience

• Familiarity with your industry speeds context-setting.
• Senior-level leadership background equals greater empathy for C-suite pressures.
• Psychological training enhances the abililty to approach the client from multiple perspectives.

3. Chemistry & Confidentiality

• Many times, we conduct “chemistry conversations” to identify the best rapport with the coach.
• Ensure the coach’s style—direct, reflective, or somewhere between—matches what helps you stretch outside your comfort zone.
• We ensure the confidentiality of the content of coaching sessions, while collaborating on the goals and methods with the client’s manager.

In short, choose the person, not the method. Review qualifications, verify results, then trust your gut. Meet our team on the Meet Our Coaches page.

Why Coaching Is Critical in Today’s Business World

Leaders now operate in an environment defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Constant disruption demands new capabilities.

Navigating Disruption

• Rapid market shifts require quick, well-reasoned decisions. Coaching provides a sounding board to test scenarios and avoid reactive missteps.
• Digital change and AI adoption alter workflows overnight. Coaches help leaders adapt strategies and keep distributed teams engaged.
• Personal resilience is vital; regular, confidential sessions let executives process stress and maintain perspective.

Meeting New Leadership Expectations

Modern stakeholders expect authenticity, inclusivity, and empathy. Coaching accelerates development of

• Psychological safety and belonging for hybrid teams
• Empowering, ownership-based cultures
• Calm, confident direction when the path ahead is unclear

For more on how the field itself is evolving, listen to our podcast on the future of executive coaching.

Conclusion

As we wrap up our journey through executive coaching, I hope you’ve gained a clear understanding of its profound impact. It’s truly more than just a professional development tool; it’s a strategic, forward-thinking investment in the heart of your organization: its leadership. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how this partnership transforms leaders, igniting behavioral change and boosting performance in ways that create a powerful ripple effect across entire companies.

The benefits, as we’ve explored, are not just theoretical – they’re tangible and compelling. Imagine seeing a significant increase in individual performance, or experiencing improved retention and a deeper bench of talent. Beyond the numbers, it translates into real-world improvements like stronger team dynamics, higher employee satisfaction, and a robust leadership pipeline ready for future challenges.

In today’s ever-shifting business landscape – a place of constant disruption and evolving expectations – leaders need more than just good intentions. They need concrete support to steer complexity, build true resilience, and consistently drive results. Executive coaching provides that essential framework, empowering leaders like you to open up your full potential, uncover those often-hidden blind spots, and lead with genuine authenticity and lasting impact.

At Berman Leadership, this is our passion and our expertise. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we craft custom, context-based approaches, blending deep business expertise with a nuanced understanding of human behavior. This unique combination allows us to tackle those mission-critical leadership challenges head-on, whether you’re in pharma, insurance, legal, industrials, finance, investment, or any corporate environment. My team and I are genuinely dedicated to helping you become the leader you truly aspire to be, ensuring that your personal growth directly fuels your company’s success.

Leadership isn’t just about managing; it’s about creating a powerful competitive advantage. I invite you to find how our executive coaching solutions can reshape your future and accelerate your performance.

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Why Talent Strategy Is Your Organization’s Most Critical Investment

A CEO of a fast-growing tech company I once coached was celebrating record revenue but was privately concerned. His top engineers were burning out, and his new hires, while brilliant on paper, didn’t seem to connect with the company’s mission. They were growing fast but felt like they were losing their soul. The problem wasn’t a lack of talent; it was the absence of a coherent talent strategy.

This is a common trap for leaders: treating people management as a series of disconnected HR tasks—recruiting, training, reviews—rather than an integrated framework that underpins the entire business. A true talent strategy is a comprehensive plan that aligns an organization’s people practices with its business objectives. It’s not just about filling open positions. It creates a sustainable competitive advantage by ensuring you have the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time.

An effective framework must have a direct connection to organizational goals, with a systematic approach to talent acquisition that finds top performers who fit the culture. It requires robust programs for development and retention to ensure continuous learning and career growth. It also involves performance management systems that guide success, succession planning to build a pipeline for critical roles, and the use of data and analytics to inform every talent decision.

The stakes have never been higher. Today’s business landscape presents a perfect storm: 48% of HR leaders identify skill shortages as their top threat, while 87% of C-suite executives recognize workforce strategy as key to success – yet only 24% feel prepared to act. Companies with strong talent strategies increase revenue 2.2 times faster and profits 1.5 times faster than their peers.

The challenge goes deeper than finding good people. When 5% of roles create 95% of organizational value, success depends on identifying these critical positions and ensuring they’re filled with your strongest talent. This requires moving beyond traditional hierarchy-based thinking to focus on roles that directly impact your ability to deliver on strategic promises.

Our experience building and executing talent strategies in financial services, insurance firms, and large law firms has shown me that the most successful companies treat talent as their primary strategic differentiator, integrating psychological science with business expertise to build frameworks that last.

The Foundation: Aligning Your Talent Strategy with Business Objectives

I once worked with a CEO who was frustrated that his company kept hiring “great people” who somehow weren’t moving the needle on business results. The HR team was proud of their recruitment metrics—time-to-fill was down, candidate satisfaction was up. But revenue growth remained flat, and key strategic initiatives kept stalling.

The problem wasn’t the quality of people they were hiring. It was that their talent strategy existed in complete isolation from their business strategy. They were optimizing for hiring efficiency rather than business impact.

This disconnect is more common than you might think. Many organizations treat talent acquisition and talent management as separate functions—something HR handles while leadership focuses on “real” business issues. But here’s what I’ve learned after two decades HR Leadership: your people strategy is your business strategy. When they’re misaligned, even the most talented individuals can’t deliver the results you need.

Why a Talent Strategy is Essential for Modern Businesses

Let’s be honest—the business world has fundamentally changed. The challenges leaders face today require a different approach to how we think about talent.

Business alignment sits at the heart of effective talent strategy. Every hiring decision, every development program, every retention effort should directly connect to your company’s strategic goals. When we work with executive teams, I often ask a simple question: “Can you draw a straight line from your talent investments to your business outcomes?” Too often, the answer is no.

The strategic drivers behind talent strategy have evolved too. We’re not just filling positions anymore; we’re building capabilities that didn’t exist five years ago. The skills your organization needs tomorrow may not even have names today. This reality demands a proactive approach—one that anticipates future needs rather than simply reacting to current gaps.

Research consistently shows that skill shortages represent one of the biggest threats to organizational success. For example, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 highlights that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted within the next five years, underscoring the urgency of a forward-looking talent strategy. But here’s what’s interesting: companies that develop strong talent strategies don’t just avoid this trap—they turn it into competitive differentiation. While other companies scramble to find scarce talent in the market, these organizations are busy developing it internally.

The shift from reactive to proactive hiring represents perhaps the most significant change in how successful companies approach talent. Reactive hiring means you’re always playing catch-up, filling urgent needs with whoever’s available. Proactive talent strategy means you’re building the bench strength your organization will need to execute on its strategic vision, a critical component of organizational depth.

Linking Talent to Value: Identifying Mission-Critical Roles

Here’s a insight that might surprise you: in most organizations, roughly 5% of roles create 95% of the value. I’ve seen this pattern across industries—from pharmaceuticals to financial services. The challenge isn’t recognizing this reality; it’s figuring out which roles matter most in your specific context.

Identifying value-creating roles requires looking beyond traditional org charts. Sometimes the most critical person in your company isn’t the highest-paid or most senior. It might be the engineer who understands your core technology better than anyone else, or the client relationship manager who keeps your biggest customer happy.

This is where psychological science in assessment becomes invaluable. Understanding not just what someone can do, but how they think, what motivates them, and how they respond under pressure gives you crucial insights into whether they’ll thrive in mission-critical positions.

Moving beyond hierarchy means asking different questions. Instead of “Who reports to whom?” ask “Who has the greatest impact on our ability to deliver value to customers?” Instead of “What’s their title?” ask “What would happen to our business if this person left tomorrow?”

Talent-to-value mapping becomes your strategic compass. I worked with a technology company that finded their most innovative solutions weren’t coming from their R&D department, but from a small customer support team that had daily conversations with users. Once they recognized this, they completely redesigned how they identified and developed talent with similar customer insight capabilities.

The performance impact of getting this right is profound. When you have the right people in your most critical roles, everything else becomes easier. Projects move faster, decisions improve, and teams perform at higher levels. But when these key positions are filled with the wrong people—no matter how talented they might be in other contexts—your entire organization feels the drag.

Strategies for linking talent to value start with honest assessment. Map your value chain. Identify the handful of roles that, if executed exceptionally, would transform your business results. Then audit whether you have the right people in those positions—not just people who can do the job, but people who can excel at it.

This approach requires moving beyond generic job descriptions to understand the specific combination of skills, experience, and psychological attributes that drive success in each critical role. It’s not enough to hire smart people and hope for the best. You need to be intentional about matching talent to the roles where they can create the most value.

The Pillars of a Comprehensive Framework

An effective talent strategy rests on an integrated framework that manages the entire employee journey. Viewing these phases as separate functions is a common mistake; instead, they must work in harmony to create an organization where great people want to work, grow, and stay. I’ve watched too many companies focus on one area—say, recruitment—while neglecting development or culture. It’s like building a beautiful front door on a house with no foundation; the structure won’t stand the test of time.

The first challenge is to move beyond simply finding people and become an organization that exceptional talent actively seeks out. This begins with building an authentic employer brand, which is the story you tell about why someone should invest their career with you. It’s not just about compensation, but about the growth and impact they can expect. Inclusive hiring practices are strategically essential here, as they expand your reach beyond traditional networks to tap into overlooked talent pools. Every step of this process, from the initial application to the final offer, creates a candidate experience that signals how you value people.

Once you’ve attracted great people, the investment deepens. Effective onboarding is the first opportunity to prove your commitment to growth, connecting new hires to the larger organizational purpose. This commitment must continue through continuous learning opportunities, which have become a critical retention tool. In an era of rapid change, upskilling and reskilling your current employees is far more effective than constantly recruiting for new skills externally. This developmental focus should also reshape performance management, shifting it from an annual review to an ongoing conversation about growth. For individuals with exceptional potential, targeted development programs are crucial for cultivating future leaders.

Finally, none of this is sustainable without a culture of engagement and inclusion. A supportive culture also prioritizes employee well-being, offering the flexibility and work-life integration that acknowledge people as whole individuals. At its core is psychological safety—the trust that allows people to voice ideas, challenge assumptions, and admit mistakes without fear. When leaders foster this environment, and when recognition and rewards are aligned with these values, your talent strategy becomes a self-reinforcing system of excellence.

From Blueprint to Reality: Designing and Implementing Your Framework

The gap between a brilliant talent strategy on paper and one that actually transforms your organization isn’t about the quality of your thinking—it’s about execution. Having worked with countless leadership teams through this journey, I’ve seen that the most successful organizations treat implementation not as an afterthought, but as a carefully orchestrated process that requires the same strategic rigor as the planning phase itself.

The journey from blueprint to reality begins with a comprehensive talent assessment and gap analysis. This is a strategic deep dive to understand your current capabilities against your future business needs, asking honestly what skills are missing and which internal talents are being underestimated. From this assessment, you can define clear, measurable talent goals and KPIs that are tied directly to business outcomes, such as reducing time-to-competency in critical roles or increasing innovation through targeted skill development. With these goals in place, you can design targeted initiatives using a flexible framework of “buy, build, or borrow.” This means strategically acquiring external talent (“buy”), developing capabilities internally through upskilling (“build”), or leveraging contingent workers for specialized, short-term needs (“borrow”).

Of course, a brilliant plan requires resources and stakeholder buy-in to succeed. This involves not just securing a budget, but socializing the strategy with business leaders to gain their active sponsorship. The final, ongoing phase is to execute, monitor, and iterate. A talent strategy is a living document, requiring regular reviews and a willingness to adjust based on performance data and shifting market conditions.

This entire process must be underpinned by data and analytics. Without metrics, you are making critical decisions based on intuition rather than insight. Data on quality of hire, retention rates, and engagement scores provide tangible evidence of your strategy’s impact. Predictive analytics can even transform your approach from reactive to proactive, helping you forecast future talent needs or identify employees at risk of leaving. While implementing a data-driven approach has its challenges—requiring the right technology, skills, and culture—it is the foundation that separates successful programs from expensive experiments.

It’s also crucial to recognize that this framework must be adapted to your organization’s specific context. A nimble startup’s strategy will rightly emphasize cultural fit and agility, while a large enterprise must steer complexity at scale, focusing on consistency and sophisticated analytics. Mid-sized companies face the unique challenge of professionalizing their talent practices without losing their entrepreneurial spirit. The key is to build a strategy that fits your current reality while preparing you for the next phase of growth.

Why Leadership Development Programs Are Essential for Modern Organizations

As founder of Berman Leadership Development, I’ve seen a common pattern play out over 30 years of coaching executives. Consider a growing theater chain that stalled despite strong market conditions. Their challenge wasn’t strategy or capital—it was leadership depth. Without developed leaders ready to manage expansion, growth opportunities slipped away. Only after implementing a comprehensive leadership development program did they open up innovation projects that increased both revenue and customer satisfaction.

This story highlights a critical truth: leadership development programs are not a luxury but a strategic necessity. They are structured initiatives designed to build leadership capabilities by integrating psychological science with business realities. Effective programs move beyond simple training, incorporating assessment and feedback, experiential learning, executive coaching, and mentorship to build a robust pipeline of future leaders.

Yet many organizations face a disconnect. A Harvard Business Publishing survey found that while 85% of respondents see a need to improve their skills, a third feel their companies don’t provide enough recognition for learning. This gap creates real business risks. The numbers, however, tell a compelling story of what’s possible. At Adobe, 35% of participants in a leadership program earned promotions to Director-level or above, while Freeletics saw an 11% increase in leadership mastery in just three months. These are the tangible results of investing in people.

The Strategic Imperative: Why Ad-Hoc Leadership Fails

I recently worked with a technology company that had everything going for it—brilliant engineers and cutting-edge products. Yet they were stuck. Talented employees were leaving, and growth had plateaued. The issue wasn’t strategy; it was a leadership vacuum. They had promoted their best technical performers into management roles without any development support, creating a cascade of problems.

This scenario is common. Many organizations rely on an ad-hoc approach, promoting high performers and hoping they’ll figure it out. But hope isn’t a strategy. The costs are staggering, not just in lost talent but in institutional knowledge and team disruption. Leadership development is the deliberate process of enhancing an individual’s capacity to lead others and drive organizational goals. When done right, it aligns with business priorities and creates measurable impact.

The ripple effects touch every corner of the business. Strong leaders foster a positive work environment, which is key to opening up potential. This drives employee retention, as people who see a clear path for growth become more loyal. It also fuels innovation by creating psychological safety for teams to take calculated risks. This leads to improved profitability and a sustainable competitive advantage. At Berman Leadership, we help organizations Develop Great Leaders who can build this critical foundation.

What are Leadership Development Programs?

Leadership development programs are strategic, structured initiatives that systematically cultivate leadership capabilities. They are not just collections of workshops but comprehensive systems designed to transform how people think, act, and lead. The most effective programs focus on three critical areas: skill building in tangible abilities like communication and conflict resolution; mindset shifts that foster adaptability and a broader perspective; and business alignment that ensures all development supports the organization’s strategic goals.

A significant component involves identifying and nurturing high-potentials—those individuals with the drive to ascend to greater leadership roles. Our High Potential Development programs are designed to create robust pipelines of future leaders, ensuring the organization is prepared for what’s next.

When organizations commit to this structured approach, the benefits are clear. I’ve witnessed increased employee engagement, higher retention rates, and improved team performance across industries. Stronger succession pipelines develop organically, and a newfound agility and innovation emerge as leaders become more comfortable with ambiguity. These advantages translate directly to better financial results. The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in leadership development—it’s whether you can afford not to.

Designing for Impact: Core Components of Effective Leadership Development Programs

Creating truly impactful leadership development programs requires more than a training budget; it demands an understanding of the interplay between human psychology and business realities. Over my 30 years in executive coaching, I’ve learned that programs creating lasting change are those that dig into the psychological foundations of leadership while staying focused on business outcomes.

At Berman Leadership, we integrate psychological science, behavioral science, and deep business expertise to move beyond surface-level training. This is especially critical in complex sectors like pharma, finance, or legal services, where leadership agility can be mission-critical. Our guiding principle is to create custom solutions for mission-critical challenges, because a cookie-cutter approach simply doesn’t work. As Harvard Business Publishing notes, designing effective learning programs requires intentional design that fosters genuine growth.

Key Methodologies for Lasting Change

Effective programs orchestrate a symphony of learning experiences. We are guided by the 70-20-10 model, which recognizes that most learning happens through on-the-job experiences (70%) and interactions with others (20%), with only 10% from formal training. This framework ensures we build a rich learning ecosystem.

Experiential learning forms the backbone, where leaders practice skills in real-world scenarios. This is complemented by Action learning, where teams solve actual business problems, fostering critical thinking and collaboration. For personalized growth, Executive Coaching provides one-on-one guidance to overcome specific challenges. We also build powerful mentorship programs and facilitate peer learning to harness collective wisdom. Finally, 360-degree feedback provides a comprehensive view of a leader’s impact, while our targeted Leadership Workshops build specific skills efficiently.

The Critical Role of Executive Involvement and Mentorship

I’ve seen beautifully designed programs fail for one reason: a lack of visible, active executive involvement. The most successful programs follow a leader-as-teacher model, where senior leaders actively participate, share experiences, and facilitate sessions. This lends immediate credibility and relevance.

Sponsorship from a senior leader provides not just advice but advocacy and access, sending a powerful message of belief in an individual’s potential. This helps create a true mentoring culture where guidance and feedback are woven into the organization’s fabric. When leaders at the top model this behavior, it creates accountability and reinforces that development is a continuous journey. This multi-layered support system, involving coaches like those on our team who bring decades of experience, helps leaders understand the crucial distinction between their Intent vs. Impact. This is how new behaviors take root and transform not just individuals, but the entire culture.

Tailoring the Journey: Leadership Development Across the Organization

“We keep promoting our best people,” a frustrated CEO once told me, “but they’re struggling in their new roles.” His company treated leadership development as a one-size-fits-all solution, giving a brilliant engineer the same training as a seasoned director. This is a common mistake. Effective leadership development programs must be custom to the specific challenges and responsibilities at different organizational levels.

Leadership evolves as people move up the ranks. The skills for success as a team leader differ from those needed at the executive level, where strategic thinking becomes paramount. That’s why we help organizations design scalable processes for Leading at Multiple Levels. Think of it like building a house: you need a strong foundation before adding walls and a roof. Competency models and clear career pathing provide the roadmap for what skills to develop at each stage.

For Frontline and New Managers

When an individual contributor becomes a people manager, they enter entirely new territory. Development for this group should focus on foundational skills. This includes learning to delegate effectively, mastering clear communication, and gaining tools for conflict resolution. Perhaps most importantly, they must learn team building—how to motivate diverse personalities and foster psychological safety. Our Leadership Acceleration & Onboarding solutions are designed to build confidence in these core areas, helping new managers learn to “Model, Coach, Care.”

For Mid-Level and Senior Leaders

Leaders in the middle must translate executive vision into action while representing their teams upward. This requires a more sophisticated skill set. Strategic and systemic thinking become crucial, as they must see the bigger picture and understand how different parts of the organization interconnect. They need to learn to influence across functions without direct authority and master change management. Most importantly, their focus must shift from being a top performer to developing others. My book, Influence and Impact, explores these nuances, helping leaders understand that their success now depends on multiplying their impact through others as they Lead at the Next Level.

For the C-Suite and Executives

At the executive level, development becomes highly strategic. The focus shifts to enterprise-wide responsibilities. Vision setting is paramount—articulating a compelling future that rallies the organization. Leaders must master leading through systems, optimizing complex organizational structures rather than managing individual parts, which often involves navigating an Executive’s Ethical Balancing Act. They are the primary shapers of organizational culture and must manage complex stakeholder relationships with investors, regulators, and the community. For these leaders, personalized development is indispensable, which is why What is Executive Coaching? becomes such a critical tool for exploring complex challenges and refining decision-making in a confidential, custom setting.

Measuring What Matters: Proving the ROI and Fostering a Learning Culture

I once worked with a pharmaceutical company that had invested heavily in leadership development. When the new CFO asked about the return on investment, the HR director could only point to positive feedback surveys. The program was nearly canceled until we implemented a measurement framework that showed it had contributed to a 23% reduction in project delays and a 15% increase in cross-functional collaboration.

This reinforced a fundamental truth: if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Proving the ROI of leadership development programs requires a commitment to data-driven decisions. It’s about establishing clear goals upfront and creating a continuous feedback loop that not only demonstrates value but also identifies opportunities for improvement. This approach turns development from a perceived cost center into a proven strategic investment.

Measuring Program Effectiveness

Effective measurement requires a balanced approach, combining quantitative metrics with qualitative insights. Instead of a simple checklist, think of it as a balanced scorecard for leadership growth. Employee engagement scores are a reliable barometer; improvements in trust and clarity of direction often reflect stronger leadership. Promotion rates and the retention of high-potentials are concrete measures of succession planning success. For example, Adobe saw 35% of program participants promoted to director-level roles.

From a Program to a Culture of Continuous Learning

While programs create momentum, real change occurs when organizations cultivate a culture of continuous learning. This requires fostering a growth mindset, where challenges are seen as opportunities and mistakes are learning experiences. The foundation for this is psychological safety, allowing leaders to be vulnerable and experiment without fear of judgment.

This culture is nurtured through recognition for learning and by encouraging social learning through peer-to-peer interaction and mentorship. The most successful organizations treat leadership as a collective effort, where senior leaders act as teachers and mentors. This commitment to upskilling for shared prosperity creates a virtuous cycle, ensuring your organization has the resilient and visionary leaders it needs for the future. We share further ideas on this in our Thought Leadership Resources.

Frequently Asked Questions about Leadership Development

Over my three decades of work, I’ve found that executives and HR leaders often grapple with the same fundamental questions when considering leadership development programs. Their concerns typically revolve around effectiveness, commitment, and implementation. Here are my reflections on the most common themes.

One of the first questions is always, what makes a program successful? The answer isn’t a single ingredient but a combination of factors. Success begins with strategic alignment, ensuring the skills being developed directly address the organization’s most pressing business challenges. It requires customization, as a new frontline supervisor needs different support than a C-suite executive. The methodology must also be a blended learning approach that includes experiential projects, coaching, and mentorship. Finally, success is impossible without active executive sponsorship and a robust system for measuring impact on retention, promotions, and business outcomes.

Another common concern is program duration. Many hope for a quick fix, but sustainable change takes time. While an intensive workshop can build a specific skill in a few days, comprehensive development unfolds over months or even years. True mastery requires a long-term commitment that allows leaders to practice new skills, receive feedback, and internalize new behaviors in real-world contexts. Leadership development is a continuous journey, not a one-time event.

Finally, leaders ask how to identify the right candidates. This is perhaps the most critical factor. The process should be systematic, looking beyond past performance, which doesn’t always predict leadership potential. A multi-faceted approach using manager nominations, 360-degree feedback, and assessments of learning agility provides a more complete picture. This reveals not only an individual’s current capabilities but also their capacity for growth, resilience, and alignment with company values—the true markers of a future leader.

Conclusion: Your Next Generation of Leaders Awaits

I recently spoke with a CEO who said, “Bill, I used to think leadership was about having the right answers. Now I realize it’s about building people who can find better answers than I ever could.” This captures the essence of what leadership development programs can achieve.

The cost of a leadership vacuum is steep. It’s the brilliant manager who leaves for a better opportunity, the missed innovations, and the slow erosion of your competitive edge. But this doesn’t have to be your story. A strategic investment in leadership development transforms organizations by creating empowered teams, building resilience, and fostering a culture where leadership flows through every level.

The fusion of psychological science and business acumen is practical magic. When you understand why people behave as they do, you can design solutions that deliver measurable impact. At Berman Leadership, we don’t use cookie-cutter approaches; we build custom solutions for mission-critical challenges in demanding industries like pharma and finance.

Your next generation of leaders is already in your organization. The question isn’t whether they have potential, but whether you will give them the tools to realize it. Are you ready to transform that potential into performance? Transform your organization with our Leadership Development Programs and find what’s possible when you truly invest in your people.

In today’s fast-paced, highly competitive business landscape, the temptation is to move fast, close deals, and keep things transactional. But at Berman Leadership, we’ve found that the leaders who go further—and last longer—are those who lead with humanity.

On the Human Wise podcast, Dr. Bill Berman shares why relationships, not transactions, are the real differentiator in leadership:

“To build long-term clients, suppliers, or teams, you need deeper conversations. You need trust.”

This idea sits at the heart of human-centered leadership. It’s not about being soft. It’s about being real. It means asking questions like:

• What matters to the people I lead and serve?
• What pressures are they navigating?
• Where can I create space for honesty, trust, and growth?

In hybrid and remote work environments, these conversations don’t happen casually. They must be created—with intention. That’s where psychological safety comes in. Leaders must signal, through words and behavior, that their teams are safe to speak up, take risks, and bring their full selves to work.

This isn’t just good culture—it’s good business. When people feel heard and valued, they perform better, collaborate more, and stay longer.

At Berman Leadership, we help executives build human-centered habits that translate to commercial outcomes. Listening, curiosity, empathy, clarity—these are the skills that move teams and organizations forward.

In a world where everything feels replaceable, relationships are the true competitive edge.

Explore how we help leaders drive performance through connection:
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The Paradox of Potential: More Than Just Performance

High potential development is the strategic process of identifying and nurturing employees who show exceptional ability, aspiration, and engagement to become future leaders.

Key components of high potential development:

• Identification: Using assessments to spot future leaders.
• Development: Providing targeted coaching and stretch assignments.
• Retention: Creating clear career paths and growth opportunities.
• Measurement: Tracking promotion velocity and leadership bench strength.

I once worked with a pharmaceutical company that promoted Sarah, their top sales director, to VP of Global Sales. On paper, she was the obvious choice. Six months later, she was struggling. The strategic thinking, complexity of leading leaders, and political navigation required by the new role left her overwhelmed.

Sarah’s story illustrates a critical distinction: high performance doesn’t automatically equal high potential. Research shows only one in seven high performers are true high potentials. Yet organizations consistently make this costly mistake, promoting top individual contributors into leadership roles without the right development.

This isn’t just about career paths; it’s about organizational survival. Companies with strong leadership pipelines are better positioned for growth and innovation. Those without face succession crises and talent flight.

The stakes are significant: High potentials can boost team productivity by 5-15%, but they’re also far more likely to leave if they don’t see growth opportunities. With a large portion of the workforce considering job changes, getting high potential development right is a decisive advantage.

I’m Bill Berman. For over 30 years, I’ve helped companies build leadership pipelines through evidence-based high potential development programs. My experience shows that successful organizations treat potential development not as an HR initiative, but as a core business strategy.

Decoding High Potential: The Crucial Difference Between Performance and Promise

When executives ask me to identify their next generation of leaders, I start with a simple question: “Tell me about your best performer.” Then I ask the harder one: “Now tell me why you believe they’ll succeed as a leader.”

The pause that follows reveals everything. High potential development begins with understanding that exceptional performance in one role doesn’t guarantee success in another, especially in leadership.

A high-potential employee is someone who demonstrates the capacity to excel in roles of significantly greater complexity. Identifying them requires looking beyond obvious metrics.

My assessment approach centers on three critical dimensions:

Ability is more than technical skill; it’s the cognitive horsepower to process complex information, solve novel problems, and learn quickly. I look for learning agility and strategic thinking—inherent talents that can be developed but not created from scratch.

Aspiration is the inner drive to take on greater challenges and lead others. Many brilliant individual contributors are content in their roles, but high potentials are energized by the prospect of driving organizational success through leadership.

Engagement is a deep commitment to the organization’s mission. High potentials think like owners, not renters, investing emotionally in outcomes beyond their immediate role. This is crucial for senior leaders who must make decisions for the good of the company.

To visualize these dynamics, organizations often use the Performance vs. Potential Matrix (or 9-Box Grid). This tool plots employees on current performance and future potential, helping ensure you’re not just promoting your best doers into leadership roles they aren’t suited for.

The cost of misidentification—promoting someone based solely on past performance—can be devastating. This is why rigorous assessment is essential. At Berman Leadership, our Executive Assessment approach combines psychological insights with business acumen to identify true potential.

Key Characteristics of High-Potential Employees

After three decades of assessing leaders, I’ve identified five characteristics that consistently predict leadership potential in complex environments.

Learning agility is the most critical trait. It’s the ability to learn from experience and apply it to new situations, demonstrating cognitive flexibility and adaptability.

Emotional intelligence separates good managers from great leaders. High potentials have sophisticated self-awareness and social awareness, using emotional data to make better decisions and build trust.

Strategic thinking is the ability to see beyond immediate tasks. High potentials connect dots across the organization, anticipate future challenges, and think systemically.

Drive and ambition manifest as an internal engine for continuous improvement. They take initiative, seek challenges, and maintain high standards.

Resilience enables them to bounce back from setbacks. They view failures as learning opportunities and maintain effectiveness under pressure.

As Harvard Business Review notes in their analysis of what science says about identifying high-potential employees, these traits predict leadership success far better than technical skills alone.

Why HiPo Development is a Business Imperative

Only 20% of companies report having a strong pipeline of ready-now leaders. This is a fundamental business risk.

Leadership pipeline development ensures continuity and reduces disruption. Internal candidates who understand your culture can step into new roles with shorter learning curves.

Succession planning becomes strategic rather than reactive. Instead of scrambling to fill critical roles, you make deliberate choices about who is ready. Our Succession Management approach helps organizations build these pipelines systematically.

Innovation and agility flow from high-potential employees. Investing in their development is an investment in your organization’s capacity to evolve.

Employee retention is a compelling immediate benefit. The top reason talented employees leave is a lack of development opportunities. High potential development is a critical retention strategy.

The cost of losing high potentials extends beyond replacement expenses. You lose institutional knowledge, relationships, and their multiplier effect on team performance, signaling to others that your organization doesn’t invest in its people.

A Strategic Blueprint for High Potential Development

Once you understand the “why,” the next step is the “how.” My approach to high potential development moves beyond informal processes to a structured, strategic program designed to intentionally cultivate growth.

This requires a shift from treating development as a bonus to a strategic necessity. The journey begins by integrating development with your overall business strategy. Development programs must be aligned with future needs—understanding what roles and capabilities will be critical down the line.

Strategy alone isn’t enough. The foundation of any successful program is fostering a culture of growth. This means creating an environment where learning is valued and continuous improvement is everyone’s responsibility. Psychological safety is crucial, as it empowers high potentials to be vulnerable about their development needs, seek guidance, and learn from both successes and setbacks.

Identifying Your Future Leaders

Effective identification requires moving beyond gut instinct to a multi-faceted approach that combines multiple data points for a comprehensive picture.

• Performance reviews provide the foundation, but must examine how results are achieved, not just what was achieved.
• 360-degree feedback adds depth by gathering perspectives from peers, direct reports, and supervisors, revealing how an individual truly influences others.
• Manager nominations bring valuable front-line insights, but only when managers are trained to distinguish between high performance and high potential.
• Technology and assessments, like psychometric tools, provide objective data to reduce bias and identify underlying traits that predict success.
• Ensuring diversity and inclusion is critical. This requires actively challenging unconscious bias and using objective criteria to build a leadership pipeline that reflects your entire workforce. Our Team Assessment approach specifically addresses these challenges.

Essential Components of a High Potential Development Program

Once identified, the real work begins. A robust high potential development program is a carefully orchestrated experience, not a one-size-fits-all training session. I use the 70-20-10 model as a framework:

• 70% Experience: Most development happens through challenging, real-world situations. This includes stretch assignments that push HiPos beyond their comfort zones and cross-functional projects that expose them to different parts of the business.
• 20% Exposure: Learning from others is key. Mentorship programs connect HiPos with experienced leaders for guidance. Sponsorship programs are even more powerful, as senior leaders actively advocate for their protégés and create opportunities.
• 10% Education: Formal learning provides frameworks and best practices. Our Leadership Development Programs build specific competencies like strategic thinking and financial acumen.

The thread tying it all together is Executive Coaching. While group programs build general capabilities, personalized coaching addresses each individual’s unique strengths and blind spots. It’s where real change happens, shifting how someone thinks about leadership and their role in the organization. Our psychology-based Executive Coaching creates this lasting change.

Navigating the Pitfalls and Maximizing ROI

I once worked with a tech company whose high potential development program was backfiring. Their best people were leaving, and those who stayed were resentful. They had created a secretive “chosen ones club,” which demotivated everyone else.

Even well-intentioned programs can stumble. Common challenges include lack of buy-in from leadership, inconsistent application across departments, and creating an “elite” vs. “non-elite” culture. This last point risks demotivating the majority of your workforce.

A growing challenge is HiPo burnout. Statistics show 81% of high potentials feel used up at the end of their workday. They often become the go-to for every crisis, and without support, they can become overwhelmed.

The solution lies in clear communication and transparent criteria. Be open about what high potential means, how people are identified, and what development looks like. Manager training is also critical, as is committing sufficient resources to show that development is a real priority.

Best Practices for Retaining Your Top Talent

Identifying and developing high potentials is only half the battle. You also have to retain them.

• Clear career paths are foundational. HiPos need to see a roadmap for their growth, which may include lateral moves or cross-functional projects, not just promotions.
• Meaningful recognition goes beyond bonuses. Involve them in strategic planning or give them visibility with senior leadership.
• Continuous feedback is essential. These individuals are hungry for growth and need regular, specific input.
• The manager’s role is crucial. High potentials are 2.7 times more likely to leave if their manager doesn’t provide growth opportunities. Managers must act as coaches and advocates.
• A sense of purpose creates a powerful retention force. Connect their development to the organization’s mission.

Measuring the ROI of Your High Potential Development Initiatives

Every CEO rightfully asks, “How do we know this is working?” The returns must be measurable.

• Key Metrics: Track promotion velocity (how quickly HiPos advance), retention rates (HiPos should stay longer than the general employee population), and bench strength (having multiple ready-now internal candidates for critical roles).
• Qualitative Measures: Monitor engagement scores among HiPos and gather regular feedback from participants and managers to gauge program effectiveness.
• Business Results: The ultimate measure is tying program outcomes to broader business results, such as improved team performance, agility, and innovation. This demonstrates that high potential development is a strategic investment, not just an HR program.

Frequently Asked Questions about High Potential Development

Certain questions come up repeatedly when organizations begin their high potential development journey. Here are my answers to the most common ones.

How do you tell an employee they are (or are not) on a high-potential track?

This conversation requires empathy. When speaking with an identified high potential, focus on behaviors and opportunities, not labels. Frame it around the investment the organization wants to make in their growth and be clear about the expectations.

For those not on an accelerated track, emphasize their current contributions while discussing development opportunities relevant to their role and aspirations. The goal is to avoid creating a sense of exclusion. The message should be that while investment types may differ, growth opportunities exist for everyone.

What percentage of employees are typically considered high-potential?

In my experience, high potentials typically represent 3% to 5% of the workforce. This can vary by industry, but the critical principle is quality over quantity. It’s better to have a smaller group of true high potentials receiving meaningful development than a larger group where resources are spread too thin.

Can a high-performer become a high-potential?

Absolutely. A high performer can develop into a high potential, but it requires intentional effort. The transition involves building aspiration and leadership competencies that weren’t necessary for their individual success.

This requires a shift in mindset and skills, often moving from being a top “doer” to enabling others. This is where targeted development like executive coaching and stretch assignments becomes crucial. Potential can be developed, and organizations that take this view often find hidden talent and create more diverse leadership pipelines.

Conclusion: Investing in Potential is Investing in Your Future

The journey we’ve taken together through this exploration of high potential development brings us to a fundamental truth: this isn’t about quick wins or checking boxes on an HR scorecard. It’s about making a strategic, long-term investment in the future of your organization—one that requires patience, intentionality, and unwavering commitment.

Throughout my three decades of working with leaders across industries, I’ve witnessed the change that occurs when organizations accept the paradox of potential. They stop assuming that yesterday’s star performer will automatically become tomorrow’s visionary leader. Instead, they develop the discipline to look deeper, to assess not just what someone has accomplished, but what they’re truly capable of becoming.

The power of a psychology-informed approach lies in its ability to see beyond the surface. When we understand the cognitive patterns, emotional intelligence, and motivational drivers that separate high performers from high potentials, we open up something remarkable. We don’t just identify future leaders—we actively create them. This deeper insight allows us to nurture leaders who aren’t just effective in the moment, but who remain resilient, adaptable, and aligned with your organizational values as they face increasingly complex challenges.

But here’s what I’ve learned matters most: the most important question isn’t “who are our HiPos?” but “how are we systematically creating our next generation of leaders?” This shift in mindset—from talent identification to talent creation—is what truly transforms an organization. It moves you from hoping the right people will emerge to ensuring they will.

The companies that get this right don’t just survive market disruptions; they lead through them. They don’t just fill leadership gaps; they anticipate and prevent them. They don’t just retain their best people; they help those people become the leaders who will define their industry’s future.

At Berman Leadership, this is exactly the kind of change we help create. We specialize in designing and implementing comprehensive, custom programs for organizations across pharma, insurance, legal, industrials, finance, investment, and corporate sectors. Our unique approach combines psychological science with business expertise, creating development experiences that don’t just build skills—they build the kind of leaders who thrive in mission-critical situations.

The investment you make in high potential development today will determine whether your organization has the leadership bench strength to seize tomorrow’s opportunities. To build a robust leadership pipeline in your organization, explore our High-Potential Development solutions.

Why 360 Feedback is the Mirror Every Leader Needs

360 feedback is a development tool that gathers anonymous input from supervisors, peers, and direct reports to provide a comprehensive view of a leader’s effectiveness. Unlike traditional reviews focused on what gets done, it examines how work gets accomplished by measuring behaviors like communication, teamwork, and leadership.

This multi-source perspective is crucial. I once coached an executive who believed his open-door policy made him approachable, but his peers felt he was spending too much time talking to staff and not enough time building business. This disconnect is the uncomfortable gift of 360 feedback: it shows us how others experience us, not just how we see ourselves.

The process, used by nearly 90% of Fortune 500 companies, provides a complete picture that a single top-down review cannot. It identifies strengths, reveals blind spots, and creates a clear path for development.

I’m Bill Berman, an executive coach and organizational psychologist. Over 30+ years, I’ve seen leaders in finance, pharma, and other sectors transform when they accept this process. Those who embrace the feedback as a “gift” are the ones who grow most dramatically.

Understanding the Core of 360 Feedback

Traditional feedback methods are like looking in a single mirror. 360 feedback is the three-way mirror that shows you the angles you never see, revealing the full picture of your professional behavior. It recognizes that you don’t work in isolation; people above, beside, and below you all have unique insights into your effectiveness.

This multi-rater approach has roots in the 1930s German military and was adopted by corporations like Esso in the 1950s. Today, technology makes 360 feedback a cornerstone of leadership development, especially in complex, matrixed organizations where influence matters more than authority. It’s an essential component of modern Leadership Development Programs. The process relies on anonymity and confidentiality, which encourages the honest observations needed to uncover leadership blind spots.

What is 360 feedback and who participates?

360 feedback gathers input from your entire work ecosystem. The process typically includes:

• Self-evaluation: Your own assessment, which provides a baseline for identifying perception gaps.
• Manager feedback: The traditional top-down view on alignment with organizational goals.
• Peer feedback: Insights into your collaboration, conflict resolution, and teamwork.
• Direct report feedback: Upward feedback on your leadership style and its impact on your team.
• External stakeholders: Input from clients or partners on market-facing effectiveness.

When multiple sources identify similar behaviors, you can trust the feedback reflects genuine patterns, not individual biases.

How 360 Feedback Differs from Traditional Performance Reviews

If a traditional review is an annual check-up, 360 feedback is an MRI, revealing detailed information that needs attention. The primary difference is purpose: traditional reviews are evaluative (for pay and promotion), while 360 feedback is developmental (for awareness and growth). This distinction shapes the entire process.

Because it is anonymous, behavior-focused, and future-oriented, 360 feedback uncovers the interpersonal dynamics that traditional reviews miss. It creates a roadmap for behavioral change that is especially powerful when combined with targeted support like Executive Coaching.

The Dual Nature of 360 Feedback: Benefits and Challenges

I once coached a pharma executive who learned from her 360 feedback that her collaborative style was perceived by her team as indecisive. This wake-up call illustrates the dual nature of the process: it can create profound change but carries risks if handled carelessly.

The primary benefit is a dramatic increase in self-awareness. It’s highly effective at identifying blind spots and overused strengths— behaviors that can derail a career, and hidden strengths – valuable skills that the individual underestimates or underutilizes. The process also creaes a culture of mutual investment, which is vital for building strong teams.

Key Benefits for Individuals and Organizations

Research shows 360 feedback drives measurable performance improvements. For individuals, it leads to targeted skill development and often accelerates career advancement. For organizations, the returns include higher employee engagement, as people feel heard, and even improved employee belonging. Most importantly, it helps build a stronger leadership pipeline by identifying high-potential individuals and their specific development needs, a key strategy to strengthen your bench. It’s clear why over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use it.

Potential Drawbacks and How to Mitigate Them

The 360 process is not without pitfalls. Rater bias, fear of retribution, and office politics can skew results. If people don’t trust the anonymity, you’ll get sanitized, unhelpful responses. Information overload can also overwhelm recipients without proper support. It is important to identify and use industry best practices when introducing 360s to your organization.

Mitigation requires discipline:

• Clear Communication: Repeatedly stress the developmental purpose of the process.
• Professional Facilitation: Use a trained coach to help interpret reports and create action plans.
• Rater Training: Teach people to give specific, behavior-focused feedback.
• Separation from Appraisal: Crucially, keep feedback separate from performance reviews and compensation to remove fear and encourage honesty.

Designing and Implementing an Effective 360 Program

A tech CEO I worked with was frustrated that his company’s 360 feedback attempts had failed. People got reports, but nothing changed. The problem wasn’t the concept; it was the execution. A successful program is a strategic initiative, not a one-time HR event. It requires thoughtful planning to align the process with goals, communicate its purpose, and follow through with meaningful action. When done right, it fosters a continuous feedback culture and can be paired with broader Team Assessment initiatives.

Step-by-Step: From Conception to Action Plan

Successful implementation follows a clear pattern:

1. Define Purpose & Competencies: Be clear on why you’re doing this (e.g., developing future leaders) and align questions with your organization’s core competencies.
2. Select Raters: Participants should choose 8-12 reviewers (manager, peers, direct reports) who have worked with them for at least six months.
3. Communicate the Process: Clearly explain the purpose, process, and confidentiality rules. Emphasize that it is for development, not evaluation.
4. Administer the Survey: Use a user-friendly online platform. Keep assessments focused (30-40 items) to avoid survey fatigue.
5. Generate Reports: Reports should highlight patterns and gaps between self-perception and others’ views.
6. Facilitate Feedback Session: A 1-2 hour one-on-one session with a trained coach is crucial to help the recipient process the information and move past defensiveness.
7. Create a Development Plan: Translate feedback into an actionable plan, focusing on experiential learning (the 70-20-10 model).
8. Follow Up: Re-evaluate in 8-12 months to track progress and demonstrate organizational commitment.

Ensuring Confidentiality and Trust

Trust is everything. Without it, the process fails. Key practices include:

• Third-Party Administration: Use an external vendor or dedicated internal platform to create an impartial buffer so raw data is never seen by managers.
• Anonymity Thresholds: Require a minimum number of responses (e.g., three or four per rater group) before showing data for that group.
• Data Security: Choose a platform with robust security measures.
• Clear Communication: Explain exactly who sees what information and how anonymity is protected.

Crafting Questions for Constructive, Actionable Insights

The quality of your questions determines the quality of your insights. Focus on:

• Behavior-Based Questions: Ask about observable actions, not personality judgments. For example, instead of “Is she a good communicator?” ask “How effectively does she tailor her communication to different audiences?”
• Mixed Formats: Use rating scales (e.g., “Rarely” to “Always”) for quantitative data and open-ended questions (e.g., “What should this person start/stop/continue doing?”) for qualitative insights.
• Neutrality: Avoid leading questions that suggest a desired answer.
• Customization: Tailor questions to your organization’s specific values and challenges.
• Impact Focus: Encourage raters to explain how a behavior affects them or the team.

Mastering the Art of Feedback: Best Practices and Pitfalls

A pharma executive I coached was shocked to learn his team saw him as a poor listener, even though he thought he was being decisive. That moment of recognition, fostered by psychological safety and a growth mindset, was the catalyst for his most significant leadership growth. Turning feedback into change is possible when supported by resources like Executive Coaching.

Best Practices for Giving and Receiving Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback are critical leadership skills.

When giving feedback:

• Be Specific: Use concrete examples. The SBI (Situation, Behavior, Impact) model is excellent for this. For instance, “In this morning’s meeting (Situation), you interrupted Sarah (Behavior), which seemed to discourage her from sharing her full thoughts (Impact).”
• Focus on Behavior: Address actions, not personality. Say “When project updates are late…” instead of “You’re disorganized.”
• Frame Upward Feedback Carefully: When giving feedback to a superior, focus on team impact and frame it constructively.

When receiving feedback:

• Be Curious, Not Defensive: Ask clarifying questions like, “Can you help me understand what that looked like to you?”
• Process Before Responding: Take time to absorb the information.
• Show Gratitude: Thank raters for their courage and honesty.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Many programs stumble over predictable problems. Avoid these mistakes:

• Using for Compensation/Discipline: This is the fastest way to destroy trust and integrity in the process.
• Lack of Senior Leadership Buy-In: If executives don’t participate, the initiative will be seen as unimportant.
• No Follow-Up or Coaching: Handing out reports without support is a recipe for failure. Coaching is essential to turn insights into action.
• Poorly Designed Questions: Vague or judgmental questions yield useless feedback.
• The Halo Effect: Be aware of the bias where a positive impression in one area inflates ratings in others.
• Ignoring Organizational Context: Generic tools miss unique cultural dynamics. Customize the assessment to what matters for your organization.

Frequently Asked Questions about 360 Feedback

After decades of guiding leaders through this process, I’ve found the same questions arise. Here are answers to the most common ones.

How often should a 360 feedback process be conducted?

The ideal frequency is every 18-24 months. This timeline provides enough time for individuals to act on their feedback and demonstrate real behavioral change. Conducting it more often can lead to survey fatigue and lower-quality responses. The key is to align the timing with development cycles, not an arbitrary schedule. For example, a 12-month follow-up might be perfect for someone in an intensive leadership program, while 24 months may be better for others.

Should 360 feedback be used for performance appraisal?

In a word, no. 360 feedback must remain a developmental tool, separate from compensation, promotion, or performance ratings. Tying it to evaluative decisions destroys the psychological safety required for honest feedback. Raters may “pad” responses to avoid conflict, and the fear of retribution undermines the entire process. The risks of subjectivity and manipulation are too high for such a high-stakes purpose. For guidance on traditional reviews, resources like Harvard Business Review’s article on how to conduct a great performance review are more appropriate.

What is the role of a coach in the 360 feedback process?

A coach is essential for turning feedback into growth. Research shows that individuals who receive coaching on their results improve significantly more than those who don’t. A coach acts as:

• An Interpreter: Helping the individual make sense of complex data and identify key themes without becoming defensive.
• A Facilitator: Guiding the person to uncover their own insights and take ownership of their development.
• A Planning Partner: Co-creating a concrete, actionable development plan that targets specific behaviors.
• An Accountability Partner: Providing ongoing support to ensure the development plan leads to lasting change.

At Berman Leadership, our expert coaches specialize in changing feedback from information into tangible leadership improvement.

Conclusion: Turning Feedback into a Catalyst for Growth

360 feedback is more than an assessment; it’s a philosophy that challenges us to see ourselves as others do. I think of the executive who was shocked to learn his team found him unapproachable. After working through his feedback, he became one of the most approachable leaders in his organization. That is the power of this process.

When implemented with a genuine commitment to growth, 360 feedback builds a culture of continuous development. It addresses our natural blind spots by creating a complete picture that traditional top-down reviews cannot. The most successful programs prioritize development over evaluation, ensure confidentiality, and provide professional coaching to create clear action plans.

At Berman Leadership, we’ve seen how this psychology-based approach transforms leaders and organizations in pharma, finance, and other demanding sectors. Investing in how leaders understand their impact creates a cascade of benefits, from employee engagement to overall performance.

360 feedback fosters the psychological safety required for high-performing teams. When feedback is delivered with care and received with curiosity, it creates an environment where people can learn and grow together. The journey isn’t always comfortable, but the insights gained and skills developed provide a lasting competitive advantage.

Ready to open up the potential that comes from truly understanding how your leaders show up? Transform your organization’s talent strategy with our solutions and find what’s possible when feedback becomes a catalyst for growth.

At Berman Leadership, we work with executives who are navigating a new leadership reality—one where binary thinking no longer applies.

In his Human Wise podcast conversation, Dr. Bill Berman captured it perfectly:

“It’s not either the ethics of the business or the ethics of the individual. It’s both.”

This mindset—what we call both-and leadership—is essential for today’s leaders. It means holding space for opposing forces:

• Compassion and accountability
• Listening and selling
• Individual needs and enterprise performance

It’s not easy. And it’s not always clear. But it’s the kind of thinking that allows leaders to thrive in complexity.

“Most people are more comfortable choosing one side,” Bill notes. “But great leaders know how to hold the tension between both. They live in the paradox.”

At Berman Leadership, we coach executives to build this cognitive flexibility. We help leaders:

• Make decisions that are empathetic and strategic
• Communicate with honesty and diplomacy
• Prioritize their people and protect business performance

This dialectical approach is more than a mindset—it’s a leadership muscle. And like any muscle, it gets stronger with use.

In today’s high-stakes environments, both-and leaders are the ones who move organizations forward—without leaving their people behind.

Learn how we develop leaders to operate in the gray: https://bermanleadership.com/about/

For many leaders, self-awareness means recognizing patterns after the fact—reflecting on what was said, how it was received, and what could have gone differently. That’s useful. But it’s not enough.

In a recent Human Wise podcast conversation, Dr. Bill Berman described a deeper, more strategic form of self-awareness—one that moves from hindsight to foresight:

• Retrospective self-awareness: Seeing your behavior clearly—but only after the moment has passed.
• Concurrent self-awareness: Becoming aware of your impact as it’s happening.
• Anticipatory self-awareness: Knowing in advance how you’re likely to think, feel, and act—and using that awareness to choose your response strategically.

It’s this third level that distinguishes effective leaders from reactive ones.

“If I want others to feel a certain way,” Bill notes, “I need to know how I feel—and what I’m doing that elicits that feeling.”

Anticipatory self-awareness allows leaders to:

• Prepare for high-stakes conversations
• Navigate emotionally charged situations with greater clarity
• Adjust their presence based on context
• Influence outcomes without being controlled by emotion or assumption

And yes, the business impact is real. Leaders who develop this level of self-awareness tend to:

• Build stronger alignment within teams
• Communicate with intention, not reaction
• Reduce friction during change or conflict
• Inspire confidence—even in uncertainty

At Berman Leadership, we view self-awareness not as a personality trait, but as a leadership capability. One that can be strengthened with the right support, honest feedback, and ongoing reflection.

The leaders we work with aren’t just learning to understand themselves better—they’re learning how to anticipate and manage their impact in ways that serve the business.

Because when you can see what’s coming—both inside and out—you lead with greater intention, and greater effect.

Explore how we help leaders turn self-awareness into strategic foresight: https://bermanleadership.com/about/