Senior Leadership Development Priorities for Peak-Career Leaders

It’s that time of year for budget reviews and planning as a new year begins to take shape. And as companies consider priorities and corporate strategies, it’s a good time to also align individual’s growth and priorities.

Peak Career Development Priorities is part 1 of our 3-part series focusing on trends, priorities, and insights to help align personal growth with business priorities for the year ahead.

It’s hard to get a senior leader’s attention on their own personal development. They believe that the last two and a half years have put more demand on their skills than at any other point in their careers. And they’ve enriched their skills under fire and close scrutiny. Peak career leaders have dealt with more issues in the last two and a half years than they’ve probably seen over a 30+ year career span.

Many would say ‘if I’m still sitting here after all the tough spots and decisions, I should have the skills I need to weather almost anything.’ And to some degree, they’d be right. The last few years have developed and defined new expectations for leaders.

But the work isn’t done.

There are three burning priorities in front of senior leaders, and they will each take innovative thinking and a new approach to resolve. Here’s a look at what we’re hearing from leaders and how we’re supporting the priorities they see ahead of them.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: The first priority is Culture.

Companies are still all over the board trying to reset the company culture within a new way of working. Many are still testing out the new working model from fully virtual to some form of a hybrid model. And regardless of where it lands on that spectrum, leaders know it will impact the culture. It already has.

The office environment is part of culture. From the physical space to amenities in the space, many companies illustrated their intent with employees through their location. And they created situations that drew people together to feel a part of the culture.

Virtual interaction is not the same as in-person interaction. Leaders have seen it in the last year and often talk about losing the connective tissue of an organization because people aren’t together. The environment contributes to the illustration of values, and it makes it harder when people are rarely together for the culture to take hold organically.

The great debate on senior leadership teams is: who sets the culture?

Do we define senior leadership development priorities at the top of the organization or do we build it from the bottom of the organization?

It’s both.

Culture starts with intention from the top. Leaders have to buy into the culture and agree on what to create and how to lead it. Then, the employee base will reinforce it as they make it their own.

In our current work setting, even the best of cultures feel as if they’re losing a bit of their identity. Leaders see some of their best employees walk out the door because they’re not as connected as they once were. And they see bad behaviors gain momentum in ways they never have before.

Leaders say it’s harder to reinforce culture when they can’t walk the halls and find a personal connection to employees. There’s more pressure on a few moments rather than every moment. And it’s going to take an intentional plan to rethink how employees experience culture going forward.

We can help. Over the last year, we’ve worked with companies on their senior leadership development priorities. It’s a shift from culture showing up in every little thing to making sure it’s integrated into the big things as well. Managers can own the little things, but leaders have to rethink how culture and values are reinforced in everything they say and do. We’re involved because it takes a communication plan that can integrate culture elements into town halls, strategy reveals and company goals.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: The second priority is Communication.

Communication will be essential to reset the culture and almost everything else ahead for senior leaders. A new way of working has created fragmented visibility. Leaders are running town halls, but they don’t have full participation or focus as employees dial-in to view it or listen to a recording a few days after it

Every situation counts. Communication is the skill and the tool that helps you bring clarity and conviction to the direction of the company. Employees aren’t engaged in the same way as they consider work more a thing they do vs. a place they go. Live, in-person energy and connection has returned to most parts of our lives, and that’s what a company leader is competing with.

Leaders need to find ways to breakthrough with messaging. They can’t push it on employees. Instead, they’re going to have to be intentional about how they draw employees in. Many leaders developed bad habits during their own virtual work. They felt virtual required less preparation, so they relied on notes and a more casual way of talking to employees. It has to get focused again. It’s going to take conviction and connection to get employees’ attention and drive actions from ideas.

Leaders are resetting their own barometers to speak a little less about what’s happening in the world and a little more about the direction of their companies. Communication has to shift back to big vision, and for leaders that means a reset on messaging, a reset on skills and higher expectations for impact.

We can help. Developing compelling communicators is our passion. And with senior leaders, we’re helping rethink the brand and impact needed within an organization. Often, we combine the culture work with communication coaching to make sure they align and work together.

The input we give every leader is this: From board members to customers and employees, your key audiences haven’t changed. And the way they assess your style and impact hasn’t changed either. It all matters, and if you haven’t refreshed and reset your communication skills, it may be the most important thing you do in the year ahead.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: The third priority is Succession.

I’ve talked to many leaders about how their teams have fared over the last few years. I get a mixed report on who’s retained direct reports and who’s swapped them out. But I get a consistent report about future leaders and succession.

All say the development of leaders behind the current team has stalled. One reason is the senior leaders themselves love hybrid work models. It\’s given them the flexibility they never expected to see until retirement, and they’ve built a pretty strong case for why they don\’t need to be in the office all the time. They have all the tools and connections they need to do their job well anywhere.

But the consequence is they don’t spend as much informal time with future leaders. They don’t realize that building visibility for future leaders isn’t happening organically, and it’s even a little awkward when it happens with intention. Planning for lunch or coffee together takes a fair amount of coordination just to run into each other on the same day.

Senior leaders see it as they begin talent review meetings. They notice in these conversations that they know people less than they once did. And they aren’t hearing the cross-functional support for future leaders the way they used to in these discussions. Those are red flags to a company that wants bench strength.

Senior teams need to get actively involved in future leader development. It\’s more fragmented than it once was, and companies need to get innovative in how they reinvent it. Learning teams can sharpen the skills, but they can’t impose the relationship component that is equally important.

We can help. As we’ve heard companies talk about this trend, we’ve responded with programming built to transition someone from a manager to a leader, and coaching circles that can add exposure and guidance for senior leaders. We’ve also led discussions with senior teams to rethink the way they support future leaders and to find better ways to accelerate visibility, responsibility and trust.

The demands on peak career leaders haven’t subsided. Every company has to get out of reset mode and reimagine how people fit together. The priorities of culture, communication and succession should be top of mind, and those who excel at it will redefine what leadership really means.

And we’ll ensure that you’re one of those leaders.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Why Senior Leadership Development Cannot Stop at the Top

Reaching the senior level does not mean a leader has finished developing. It means the consequences of that development have become greater.

At peak career, leaders are responsible for decisions that affect more people, influence more functions and shape the direction of the organization. Their communication carries more weight. Their behavior establishes standards, whether they intend it to or not.

That is why senior leadership development priorities should remain visible even for highly experienced executives.

Development at this stage is rarely about learning the fundamentals of management. It is about continuing to adapt. The organization changes. Employee expectations change. New technologies change how work is completed. Business conditions introduce different risks and opportunities.

A senior leader’s experience remains valuable, but experience must be paired with curiosity. Leaders who continue to examine their impact are better prepared to guide an organization through what comes next.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Culture Must Become an Executive Communication Priority

Culture is often described through values, employee experiences and organizational traditions. But leaders create culture most visibly through communication.

Employees listen to what senior leaders emphasize, what they avoid and what they repeat. They watch whether leaders explain difficult decisions. They notice when stated values align with behavior and when they do not.

This means culture cannot be delegated entirely to Human Resources, internal communications or individual managers.

Senior leaders must give the culture a voice.

That voice should be present in:

Company meetings and town halls
Strategy announcements
Decisions about workplace expectations
Conversations about performance
Responses to organizational change
Recognition of employees and teams
Discussions about customers and business priorities

Culture becomes credible when leaders connect it to actual choices.

If collaboration is a stated value, leaders should explain how collaboration influenced a decision. If accountability matters, leaders must demonstrate how accountability applies at the executive level. If innovation is important, employees need to understand what experimentation looks like and how the organization responds when an idea does not work.

Values become meaningful when leaders illustrate them through specific examples.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Leaders Need a Clearer Organizational Story

Employees cannot connect to a direction they do not understand.

Senior leaders often carry a broad view of the organization. They understand the strategy, competitive environment, financial expectations and operational challenges. Employees see only portions of that picture.

The communication challenge is to turn the executive perspective into a storyline that people throughout the organization can follow.

That storyline should answer several questions:

Where is the organization going?
Why is that direction important?
What has changed?
What must the organization do differently?
How does each group contribute?
What should employees expect next?

Repeating isolated updates does not create a storyline. Employees may hear about a new priority in one meeting, a business challenge in another and a cultural expectation somewhere else. Unless leaders connect those ideas, the audience is left to assemble the strategy on its own.

Senior leadership development should help executives identify the central message and communicate it consistently across situations.

The wording may change for different audiences. The core direction should not.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Executive Communication Skills Need Regular Attention

Experienced leaders sometimes assume that communication improves automatically with seniority. In reality, advancement can make communication more difficult.

A larger role often introduces more information, more audiences and less time. Leaders may become overly detailed because they know so much about the issue. They may rely on familiar messages long after those messages have lost their impact. They may become less aware of how their style affects others because fewer people are willing to give them direct feedback.

Communication habits can also change under pressure.

A leader who is usually thoughtful may become abrupt. A collaborative executive may begin communicating decisions without explaining the reasoning. Someone who once spoke with energy may sound detached after repeating the same message many times.

These changes affect how employees interpret the leader and the direction of the organization.

A communication reset allows senior leaders to consider:

Whether their messages are clear and relevant
Whether employees understand the larger storyline
How they are perceived in high-pressure situations
Whether their style creates connection or distance
How well they adapt to different audiences
Whether their communication produces the intended action

The purpose is not to make senior leaders sound scripted. It is to help them communicate with greater intention.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Visibility Requires More Than Being Seen

Hybrid and distributed work have changed leadership visibility.

A senior leader may appear frequently on video, send regular messages and participate in company-wide meetings without creating a strong sense of connection. Visibility is not measured only by how often the leader appears. It is shaped by what employees experience during those interactions.

Employees want to understand what their leaders care about, how they make decisions and where the organization is headed.

That requires more than delivering information.

Leaders create meaningful visibility when they:

Explain the thinking behind important decisions
Recognize the realities employees are experiencing
Connect business priorities to individual responsibilities
Ask questions and listen to the responses
Communicate consistently across formal and informal settings
Allow employees to see enough of the person behind the role

This does not mean senior leaders must be available everywhere. It means the moments they choose should have purpose.

A smaller number of focused, credible interactions can create more impact than constant communication without a clear message.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Succession Planning Is a Leadership Behavior

Succession planning is often treated as an annual process. Leaders gather for a talent review, discuss possible successors and update a list of high-potential employees.

But a list is not a succession strategy.

Future leaders need experiences, relationships, feedback and organizational visibility. Those things must develop over time.

Senior leaders play a direct role in creating them.

They can invite emerging leaders into conversations that broaden their business perspective. They can provide opportunities to lead across functions, communicate with senior audiences and take responsibility for meaningful decisions. They can make introductions that help future leaders build stronger organizational networks.

Most importantly, they can provide context.

Emerging leaders often see what senior executives decide without seeing how they reached the decision. Exposure to that thinking helps them understand tradeoffs, risk, stakeholder expectations and enterprise-level responsibility.

Senior leaders can accelerate development by explaining:

Which factors influenced the decision
What alternatives were considered
Where stakeholder interests conflicted
What risks required attention
How the message should be communicated
What the organization needs to learn next

That context turns exposure into development.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Sponsorship and Mentoring Serve Different Purposes

Mentoring helps someone learn from another person’s experience. Sponsorship uses influence to create access and opportunity.

Future leaders often need both.

A mentor may help an emerging leader think through a challenge, understand an organizational dynamic or prepare for a difficult conversation. A sponsor may recommend that person for a visible assignment, introduce them to senior stakeholders or advocate for them during a talent discussion.

Peak-career leaders should examine whether they are providing only advice or also helping capable people gain the experiences required for advancement.

This is particularly important when informal interaction is limited. In a traditional office environment, leaders may have developed impressions through meetings, hallway conversations and shared work. Hybrid environments require greater intention.

Leaders must look beyond the employees they see most often or know most easily. Otherwise, succession decisions may reflect proximity rather than potential.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Development Should Connect to Current Leadership Situations

Senior leaders are more likely to invest in development when it feels relevant to the work already in front of them.

They may resist a broad course on communication but recognize the value of preparing for a board conversation. They may not identify executive presence as a priority until stakeholder feedback reveals that their message is not landing. They may not ask for help with culture until a major organizational change tests employee trust.

Effective senior leadership development begins with a current situation.

That situation might involve:

Communicating a new strategy
Aligning an executive leadership team
Preparing for a board meeting
Leading a company-wide conversation
Addressing resistance to change
Developing a successor
Repairing trust after a difficult decision
Increasing influence across the organization
Transitioning into a larger role

Beginning with a real challenge creates urgency and relevance. It also allows the leader to apply new approaches immediately.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Use Content, Style and Situation to Evaluate Impact

At SW&A, we look at leadership communication through three dimensions: Content, Style and Situation.

Content addresses what the leader communicates. Is the message organized? Is the recommendation clear? Does the information connect to what the audience needs to understand?

Style addresses how the leader communicates. Does the leader sound confident and credible? Do pacing, language, energy and nonverbal behaviors reinforce the message?

Situation addresses the context. Who is the audience? What do they expect? What organizational dynamics affect the conversation? What outcome must the leader produce?

Senior leaders must manage all three dimensions at once.

A strong message can lose impact if the delivery appears uncertain. A confident style cannot compensate for an unclear recommendation. An approach that works with employees may need to change when the audience is the board, investors or executive peers.

This framework helps leaders identify the real source of a communication challenge and focus development where it will have the greatest impact.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Create a Personal Development Agenda

Senior leadership development priorities should be specific enough to guide action.

A useful development agenda can begin with five questions:

Which leadership situations will matter most over the next year?
What must I communicate more clearly?
Which audiences do I need to influence more effectively?
What feedback am I receiving consistently?
Which future leaders need more access, responsibility or guidance from me?

The answers can reveal a focused set of priorities.

One leader may need to develop a clearer strategic storyline. Another may need to strengthen presence during difficult conversations. A third may need to spend more time developing people beyond their direct reports.

The development plan should also include evidence of progress.

That evidence might be stronger stakeholder responses, clearer decisions, improved employee understanding, more productive executive conversations or increased visibility for future leaders.

Without observable outcomes, development can remain an intention rather than a change.

Senior Leadership Development Priorities: Peak Career Leadership Is Still a Work in Progress

The most experienced leaders have already navigated difficult decisions, shifting expectations and significant organizational change. That experience should be recognized.

It should not become a reason to stop developing.

At peak career, growth becomes less about adding another skill to a résumé and more about increasing the impact of the role. It is reflected in how clearly the leader communicates direction, how consistently the leader reinforces culture and how intentionally the leader prepares others to lead.

Culture, communication and succession are not separate responsibilities. They reinforce one another.

Culture depends on what leaders communicate and demonstrate. Communication determines whether employees understand and trust the direction. Succession ensures that future leaders can carry that direction forward.

Senior leaders who continue developing in these areas do more than improve their own effectiveness. They strengthen the organization that will remain after their role changes.

As always, we’re here when you need us.

Want a free 15-minute consultation with us to see how we can help you or your leaders? Book a call now!