Developing your leadership pipeline: a practical guide for HR professionals

Strong leadership rarely happens by accident.

Without a structured approach to developing future leaders, organisations can face succession gaps, rising recruitment costs and disruption when key employees leave. A leadership pipeline helps HR professionals identify high-potential employees, develop leadership capability and prepare people for future management roles. By creating clear development pathways, organisations can strengthen succession planning, improve retention and build leadership capacity for the long term.

What is a leadership pipeline?

A leadership pipeline is a structured process which provides a framework for how employees can move into leadership positions within a company. The Leadership Pipeline Model, established in the 1970s, outlines specific steps for employers to take to help their employees move from team players to team leaders.

Leadership pipelines are especially helpful to companies as they help managers become future leaders through the right training and development. A strong leadership pipeline supports organisations reduce skills shortages and maintain productivity.

How many levels are in the leadership pipeline model?

Within the Leadership Pipeline Model, there are six levels, also known as stages, that employees go through as they advance to managerial status.

They are: 

1. Managing self to managing others: Moving from individual work to leading a team through delegation, coaching and performance support.
2. Managing others to managing managers: Leading team leaders, building management capability and driving consistent performance.
3. Managing managers to functional managers: Overseeing a function, aligning teams with strategy and managing resources effectively.
4. Functional manager to business manager: Managing a business unit, balancing priorities and driving commercial success.
5. Business manager to group manager: Leading multiple business units, setting direction and promoting cross-functional collaboration.
6. Group manager to enterprise manager: Shaping strategy, culture and long-term success across the organisation.

Why leaders struggle during transitions

For those who are becoming managers for the first time, the transition can be difficult without guidance. For example, you may have team members who are exceptional at what they do but do not possess the right leadership skills to manage a team on their own. Additionally, there may be tension between colleagues that transition from peer to manager as their relationships at work change.

Which is why continuous professional development is crucial for existing and future managers and should be considered when developing your leadership pipeline.

Benefits of a leadership pipeline

By implementing a leadership pipeline, you're safeguarding your business against hiccups that may arise throughout the promotion process. There are many benefits to using a leadership pipeline, for example:

• Improved succession readiness
• Reduced reliance on external recruitment
• Increased employee retention
• Better business continuity
• Stronger organisational culture

The cost of not filling the leadership pipeline

Understanding the consequences of not establishing a leadership pipeline is just as important as recognising its benefits when preparing employees for leadership roles. This can help reinforce why leadership pipelines are needed and help avoid gaps when employees are promoted.

Leadership pipelines are crucial for reducing:

• Leadership gaps and skills shortages
• Low productivity
• Disengaged teams
• High turnover rates

Five steps for building a leadership pipeline

Leadership pipelines are the foundation of an effective leadership strategy, ensuring everyone understands expectations and enabling smoother workflows. The steps below outline the key actions for building a successful leadership pipeline.

Step 1: Identify future leadership potential

Firstly, it's a good idea to look at the current roles in your organisation that have leadership role gaps to identify opportunities. Additionally, it's great practice to look at individuals who could fill the roles you’ve identified. These should be people who are high performers with strong leadership potential.  

Some skills to look out for in your workforce include:

• Taking initiative
• Showing emotional intelligence
• Displaying a desire to grow

Then, once these people have been identified, review their readiness, support needs and any skills gaps they might have to prepare possible leadership plans.  

Step 2: Define leadership levels and competencies

As with any role, leadership and management positions are different depending on level and who is doing that job. It should be clear that various roles will have different requirements based on their seniority. Creating job descriptions that are transparent can be the defining factor to help you comprehensively outline leadership pipelines.  

Step 3: Create clear development pathways

By outlining key roles and their required competencies, you can create tailored development plans that help individuals progress into future positions. It's important to recognise that everyone works differently, so leadership pipelines should reflect individual working styles to support smoother transitions.

Step 4: Provide leadership training and mentoring

Leadership pipelines should be tailored not only to individual employees and the roles they are preparing for, but also to your organisation’s needs. By providing targeted training and mentoring, employers can equip future leaders with the skills, knowledge and support needed to succeed in their roles and contribute effectively to business goals. 

Step 5: Measure progress and leadership readiness

Creating a leadership pipeline is an ongoing process, so it's important to regularly assess how employees are developing and whether they're equipped for future leadership roles. By tracking progress against key competencies, performance goals and development plans, organisations can identify potential leaders and address skills gaps. This helps ensure a strong pipeline of talent is ready when opportunities arise. 

Reviewing your leadership pipeline over time

When introducing leadership pipelines, they should be integrated and ever-evolving as you use them over time. This can ensure that leaders are supported at each stage of the pipeline as they prepare to step into their new roles. Another plus of integrating leadership pipelines is that they create a culture of internal progression that supports employee retention and talent acquisition.  

Using qualifications and professional development

It’s commonly known that professional development is important in preparing employees for leadership positions. Leadership courses, mentoring programmes and targeted training help individuals develop the skills needed to progress through the leadership pipeline. Many employees work through CIPD Learning and Development courses as these accredited qualifications provide great areas for growth towards leadership roles.

By combining formal learning with practical experience, organisations can build a stronger pool of future leaders while supporting long-term employee growth.

Filling the leadership pipeline: common challenges and solutions

As with any new process being introduced to businesses, leadership pipelines aren’t without their challenges as you discover what works best for your organisation. There are some important things to consider when creating an effective structure that nurtures and prepares your staff.   

For example, these include:

• Identifying hidden talent in the workforce
• Overcoming skills gaps
• Preparing managers to lead managers
• Maintaining diversity within leadership pathways

By accepting that this process will contain challenges, you’ll be more prepared to create a leadership pipeline that is robust and builds staff confidence.  

How MOL can help you develop a stronger leadership pipeline

We understand the importance of ensuring that leaders feel confident and capable. Our accredited courses help prepare employees while developing their experience and skills to become effective managers.

MOL offers courses such as the CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management, which can be studied online to fit around work-life commitments. Additionally, for any professionals who could benefit from more introductory courses, we offer the CIPD Level 3 Foundation Certificate to help bridge skills gaps, preparing them to progress through the Leadership Pipeline. 

Get in touch if you have any queries about how we can help support your team’s professional development towards leadership roles today!