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for top management. However, these efforts are changing and expanding
for a variety of reasons:
■ The need to ensure the availability of effective leaders to take the
place of those who will be leaving;

■ Employee demand for developing new skills that will enable them
to retain their jobs or move into new positions; and,
■ Emerging understanding of leadership as a set of behaviors,
competencies, and skills that employees at all levels are expected
to develop and demonstrate.

Unfortunately, leadership development in an organization has tended to
focus on a narrow segment of the workforce, such as middle-managers
who are in line to be promoted, high-potential recruits to the organization,
or new top management. As a result, the leadership pipeline is short and
relatively narrow, since it has been built for limited capacity. 292 In this

scenario, leaders are developed as they are needed, right before they move
into leadership positions or soon afterward.

Given the rapid escalation in the complexity of demands on nonprofit and
government organizations, this “build it when you need it” approach no
longer works. Certainly, the pressure on training budgets has made it
difficult to allocate funds for longer-term leadership development

programs. However, it has become increasingly difficult to find the talent
to replace aging or departing leaders in a typical organization. The
demands on senior management time often results in less time being spent
in developing potential leaders.

Furthermore, many agencies and organizations in recent years have
increased their outsourcing of various functions and activities, which has
resulted in a hollowing-out of the middle management tier that has shrunk
the potential succession pool. It also reduces the organization’s internal
store of knowledge and expertise that can be passed down to younger
workers. 293

292 Dr. Mary B. Young, Building the Leadership Pipeline in Local, State, and Federal Government, CPS
Human Resources, 2005.
293 Dr. Mary B. Young, Building the Leadership Pipeline in Local, State, and Federal Government, CPS
Human Resources, 2005.

David Kolzow 274