When a Promotion Stops Looking Like Progress: Rethinking How We Develop Future Leaders

A promotion into management is usually presented as recognition. After years of delivering good results, an employee is offered greater responsibility, more influence and the opportunity to advance their career. Yet the person receiving that offer may have spent those same years observing what management actually involves: the endless meetings, difficult personnel decisions, competing expectations and pressure to deliver results, often while continuing to handle much of their previous workload.

When a capable employee hesitates to accept a leadership position, organisations may interpret it as a lack of ambition or confidence. But what if that hesitation reflects a fairly realistic assessment of the job?

This question is becoming increasingly relevant for companies trying to develop their next generation of managers. The challenge is no longer limited to identifying employees with leadership potential. Organisations must also convince them that taking on leadership responsibility is a worthwhile career decision, while ensuring they are adequately prepared for what follows.

The leadership ambition gap is more complicated than it appears

The extent of this hesitation is becoming visible in German labour-market research. A January 2026 study by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft found that only 14% of employees without management responsibilities could clearly imagine taking on a leadership position. Another 40% were open to the idea, but only under certain conditions.

It would be tempting to interpret these findings as evidence that employees have lost interest in leadership. However, the distinction between those two groups tells a more interesting story. A considerable proportion of the workforce hasn't ruled out management; their willingness depends on what the position would actually involve.

The reasons for hesitation are revealing. Among employees who were not currently willing to assume leadership responsibilities, 77% cited excessive workloads, 75% pointed to the level of responsibility and 73% expressed concerns about maintaining a reasonable balance between professional and personal life. For those interested in leading, however, greater decision-making freedom, attractive compensation and opportunities for development were important incentives.

These findings suggest that leadership itself has not necessarily become undesirable. Rather, employees are increasingly attentive to the conditions under which they would be expected to exercise it. A position that promises influence but offers little autonomy, or increases responsibility without providing adequate support, becomes considerably less attractive.

And prospective managers have reasons to be cautious. In its international 2025 survey, Cegos found that 67% of first-time managers reported increasing workloads, while nearly half said they lacked sufficient time for the interpersonal aspects of their role. Interestingly, most still valued their management experience. The problem, then, isn't that leadership cannot be fulfilling. It is that organisations sometimes make the experience unnecessarily demanding.

For HR leaders, this changes the nature of the challenge. Attracting future managers requires examining the responsibilities, expectations and working conditions associated with leadership positions. Development programmes have an important role to play, but they cannot compensate for a fundamentally unsustainable job.

Why being ready for a promotion isn't the same as being ready to lead

Even when employees are motivated to step into management, companies face another challenge: their usual criteria for identifying leadership potential do not always reflect what makes someone an effective manager.

An excellent engineer may be promoted because of their technical expertise. A consistently successful salesperson may be asked to manage a sales team. Both decisions can make sense, particularly when the individuals have demonstrated initiative and earned the trust of their colleagues. Yet neither achievement guarantees that the person is prepared to manage other people's performance, navigate interpersonal tensions or develop the capabilities of an entire team.

The transition fundamentally changes how success is achieved. As an individual contributor, professional competence is often demonstrated through one's own output. In management, results increasingly depend on creating the conditions in which other people can perform well. This requires a different relationship with responsibility, including the ability to delegate work that one could perhaps complete more quickly oneself.

Consider a newly promoted manager who needs to address repeated missed deadlines with a former colleague. Understanding the operational problem is relatively straightforward. Conducting the conversation effectively is another matter. The manager must establish clear expectations without damaging trust, understand the reasons behind the problem without excusing it, and agree on changes that can realistically be implemented. They must also navigate the personal discomfort of holding someone accountable who was previously an equal.

This is the kind of situation in which leadership capability becomes visible. And it illustrates why good intentions, professional expertise and a new title are insufficient preparation.

Unfortunately, development does not always precede responsibility. In the same Cegos survey, only 56% of first-time managers reported receiving training before assuming their new position. Many therefore enter leadership while still learning how to handle the responsibilities that define their role.

Of course, no programme can prepare someone for every difficult situation. Experience is essential to becoming an effective manager. But there is a meaningful difference between learning through experience with guidance and being left to discover the fundamentals of leadership through avoidable mistakes.

Preparing future leaders before they need to prove themselves

If companies want to develop a stronger leadership pipeline, preparation should begin while employees are still considering whether management is the right direction for them.

Potential leaders could be given opportunities to coordinate projects, facilitate difficult discussions or temporarily assume responsibility for smaller teams. Mentoring relationships with experienced managers could help them understand aspects of leadership that rarely appear in job descriptions. Such experiences would allow employees to assess their interests and capabilities before making a permanent career decision, while giving organisations a more meaningful basis for identifying potential.

The German IW study offers an interesting perspective here. Employees placed considerable importance on opportunities to enter leadership through deputy roles, receive mentoring and coaching, and even return to their previous position if management proved unsuitable. These preferences point towards a more gradual and supportive transition, rather than treating promotion as an irreversible leap.

Once someone decides to pursue leadership, development needs to extend beyond familiar management theories. Effective communication, constructive feedback, conflict resolution, self-management and sound judgement are capabilities that become stronger through application. They require opportunities to practise, reflect on outcomes and adjust behavior in response to experience.

Research into leadership development supports this emphasis on learning design. A meta-analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, drawing on 335 independent samples, found that leadership training effectiveness was influenced by how programmes were structured and delivered. Practical exercises, feedback, needs analysis and learning sessions distributed over time were among the characteristics associated with stronger outcomes.

For companies, the implication is important. A new manager may understand the principles of constructive feedback after attending a workshop, but understanding a principle is different from applying it during an emotionally charged conversation. Development becomes more meaningful when participants can revisit situations from their own working lives, discuss alternative approaches, experiment with new behaviors and reflect on what happened afterwards.

This also requires organisations to make room for learning. If a new manager is expected to deliver the same individual workload as before while simultaneously leading a team, even a well-designed programme may struggle to translate into everyday practice. Training needs to be accompanied by realistic expectations, access to experienced colleagues and enough time to develop confidence in the role.

The future leadership pipeline needs a different approach

Companies often evaluate the strength of their leadership pipeline by looking at how many high-performing employees have been identified as potential successors. Yet the presence of talented candidates on a succession list says little about whether those employees actually want to lead, understand what the role involves or have had opportunities to develop the necessary capabilities.

A more meaningful approach begins by treating leadership as a professional discipline that requires preparation, rather than as the automatic reward for strong individual performance. This also means recognising that employees should be able to progress through expert career paths without having to manage people. For those who are interested in leadership, organisations can create a more deliberate transition, with opportunities to explore the role, develop relevant capabilities and receive support as their responsibilities increase.

Ultimately, the challenge is to create leadership positions that people can realistically imagine themselves succeeding in, and to give them the preparation that makes this possible. Companies that address both sides of the equation will be better positioned to develop future managers who have made an informed decision to lead and have the capabilities to do it well.

For organisations looking to prepare their next generation of managers, structured development doesn't have to depend on having a large internal cohort. With Start Leading, DeepSkill brings emerging leaders from different companies together in a shared learning journey, allowing organisations to enrol individual employees and give them access to practical leadership development and exchange with peers facing similar challenges. Explore the programme to see how it could support your future leaders.

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Sources

• Flake, R., Köhne-Finster, S., & Döring, C. (2026). Führungsetage leer? Was Beschäftigte wirklich zur Führung motiviert. Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. Zur Studie
• Cegos Group. (2025, 22. Oktober). Cegos 2025 barometer on first-time managers. Zur Studie
• Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., Marlow, S. L., Joseph, D. L., & Salas, E. (2017). Leadership training design, delivery, and implementation: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(12), 1686–1718. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000241