Leadership Development in 2025 Looks Like Building the Skills of a Coach

In a world that’s increasingly fast-paced, complex, and interdependent, the leaders who thrive in 2025 are those who coach more than they command.

The traditional image of the leader as a directive problem-solver is obsolete. In its place, a new archetype is emerging—leaders who listen deeply, ask powerful questions, remain curious under pressure, and model the very vulnerability they hope to evoke in others. These are not soft skills. These are essential leadership capabilities, and they happen to be the same skills that define great coaching.

Why Coaching Skills Are Now Leadership Essentials

In our white paper, Leadership Development Needs & Coaching Solutions, we explore the profound shift occurring across organisations worldwide: from hierarchical control to collaborative sense-making. This shift is not cosmetic. It demands an entirely different set of leadership muscles.

Research from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and McKinsey & Company paints a clear picture:

• 76% of employees say they would stay longer at a company if their manager was also a coach.
• Companies that foster coaching cultures report a 46% higher engagement rate among employees.
• And according to a recent Deloitte survey, 83% of Gen Z workers say they want their leaders to act more like coaches than bosses.

This is not about learning to “coach” in name only. It’s about fundamentally rewiring how leaders show up: how they relate, how they inquire, and how they hold space for others to think and grow.

The Core Skills Leaders Need Now

In the white paper, we identify a core set of coach-like capabilities that modern leadership development must prioritise:

• Active Listening: Not just waiting to speak, but holding silence long enough for others to fully surface what they think and feel.
• Powerful Questioning: Asking questions that open thinking rather than close it—questions that reveal assumptions, spark creativity, and invite ownership.
• Curiosity Over Certainty: In a complex world, the best leaders are the ones who say, “Tell me more,” not “Here’s the answer.”
• Vulnerability and Presence: Leading with authenticity, being willing to not have it all together, and creating psychological safety for others to do the same.

These are not add-ons to a leader’s toolkit. They are the toolkit. Leadership without them is performative at best and destructive at worst.

Coaching Isn’t a Trend—It’s the Future of Leadership Development

The white paper concludes with a strong recommendation: organisations must shift from transactional leadership training to transformational development grounded in coaching competencies. This is not just an L&D preference—it’s a strategic imperative.

Among its recommendations:

• Invest in coach training for leaders at all levels, especially middle managers who often act as the bridge between vision and execution.
• Make space for reflection and dialogue, not just action and outcomes.
• Embed coaching conversations into everyday operations—team meetings, performance reviews, and strategic planning alike.

The white paper draws on research such as:

• ICF Global Coaching Study 2023, which found that organisations with strong coaching cultures are 130% more likely to have stronger business outcomes.
• McKinsey’s 2021 report on the skills needed for the future of work, which highlights social and emotional skills like empathy, active listening, and adaptability as core to leadership effectiveness.

In 2025, leadership development is no longer about climbing ladders—it’s about expanding capacity. And coaching is how we do it.

**Ready to explore how coaching is reshaping leadership development?**Download the full white paper, Leadership Development Needs & Coaching Solutions, by entering your name and email below.

Let’s build leaders who don’t just manage others—they grow them.