Nonprofits and NGOs around the world are more focused than ever on developing and retaining the future leaders who will steward their
organizations toward greater impact. While a robust “corporate” leadership development system may seem out of reach due to resources
or capacity, a few simple practices can go a long way. In Bridgespan’s work supporting hundreds of organizations’ talent development, we have
found that the key to low-cost, effective leadership development is to explicitly define the competencies most important to the organization,
and then to work with emerging leaders on tailored development plans that help them build those competencies over time.
Key Use Cases
This toolkit is designed to help executive teams, in coordination with human resources professionals or other staff support roles, to develop and implement the foundational components of an effective leadership development system.
1. Align on a set of competencies that reflect organizational goals and values
2 Co-create professional development plans using the 70-20-10 model
3 Support ongoing development conversations between managers and direct reports.
4 Make it stick: Embed these tools into existing talent systems