5 Themes from Better Leaders Summit 2025 that are Reshaping Leadership Development

The energy was immediate as more than 180 HR and L&D leaders from 120 organizations gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona, for DDI’s Better Leaders Summit 2025. Leaders from across industries connected instantly, swapping stories and best practices. The best insights came from dialogue: workshopping during sessions, in hallway conversations, and even over meals. 

From the start, anticipation was high. HR pros came ready to build their reps as change-makers who drive meaningful impact for their leaders and business. The insights started immediately. One attendee shared: “It's only the morning of Day 1, and I've already learned so much!” In their opening keynote, DDI President David Tessman-Keys and DDI CEO Tacy Byham captured the moment perfectly, calling Summit the “boot camp” for preparing leaders for what’s ahead. And you could feel it. People were already thinking about how they’d take these ideas home and apply them. 

Day 2, Holly Ransom stopped the room with a powerful statement: "Information without interpretation is noise. Action without interpretation is chaos. But interpretation that leads to action—that's leadership."  

Holly unveiled a framework for the Adaptability Quotient (AQ), or the capabilities leaders need to anticipate and accelerate through uncertainty while creating resilience. A critical ingredient? Diverse perspectives. She challenged all of us to find “sparring partners” who challenge our thinking and sharpen our judgment. We can’t rely on our own point of view alone. 

Holly’s challenge to architect through uncertainty resonated throughout Summit.  As attendees shared their experiences and solutions, five themes emerged that are reshaping how we develop tomorrow’s leaders.  

Theme #1: Preparing Current and Future Leaders Deliver Results 

What Happened 

Multiple sessions revealed that succession pipelines are strained at every level. Some leaders shared that their benches are nearly empty for critical roles.  

Conversations also revealed widening generational divides: different views of what leadership should look like, conflicting expectations about career paths, and, for some younger employees, a desire to opt out of leadership entirely. 

Layer on external pressures like AI integration, hybrid work dynamics, and accelerating business cycles, and it’s no surprise HR leaders described legacy systems as “cracking.” The leadership playbook is being rewritten faster than pipelines can keep up. 

The Takeaway 

Traditional succession planning (identifying high potentials and waiting) simply can’t meet today’s demands. Organizations need dynamic pipelines that develop broad capability pools rather than betting on a few specific individuals.  

Assessment data is essential to identify both who's ready now and who could be ready with targeted development, shifting from replacement planning to accelerating readiness.  

Cross-generational development isn't optional. Organizations need flexible learning that meets each generation where they are while building consistent leadership expectations.  A fascinating discussion emerged around communication. Without it, you can’t lead, one attendee pointed out. But the challenge? Digital natives need more support while senior leaders need refinement—same skill, totally different development approaches.  

 Finally, the volatility of the past few years means that we must build pipelines for roles that don't exist yet. That puts talent management in the driver’s seat to shape the adaptability and future-ready thinking their organizations will rely on, rather than just developing position-specific skills. 

Theme #2: Leadership Intelligence is the New Competitive Advantage  

What Happened 

Live polls provided snapshots of the current state of organizational leadership. When we asked where organizations had trusted data for critical talent decisions, leaders shared: 

Given how often succession surfaced as a pressing concern, that last number is a warning sign. It shows just how many organizations still don’t have the insights they need to make high-stakes decisions. 

Verity Creedy, DDI SVP Product, introduced our Innovation Roadmap for leadership intelligence that integrates assessment data across the leadership pipeline to guide decisions that build lasting agility.  

Clients shared how they’re already starting to make this shift—and how essential it is to have relevant, trusted data. We heard many questions about how to bring more assessment into their programs and use data more effectively.  

The Takeaway 

True leadership intelligence comes from curating objective, relevant data for specific decisions. 

Linking assessment insights across selection, development, and succession reveals patterns invisible in isolation, moving HR teams from reactive data points to predictive insights that accelerate readiness. 

Theme #3: Leadership Capabilities for the AI Era  

What Happened  

When we asked attendees about their organization’s AI maturity, the results showed just how early most companies still are in their journey: 

Nearly half of the room is still experimenting. This explains why attendees wanted to understand how leaders should lead in an AI-enabled workplace. 

Across conversations, one common theme surfaced: organizations focused only on technical AI skills are missing the bigger picture. Technology alone doesn’t drive transformation—leadership does. And with so many companies still in the early exploration stage, HR has a window of opportunity to step into a strategic role and equip leaders with critical skills that will maximize the success of AI adoption. 

The Takeaway 

AI maturity can only follow where leadership skills come first. Organizations must develop human connection and trust to lead successful AI adoption. Start with the 5 C’s of Leadership in the AI Era as a framework. 

Now is the ideal moment to get ahead. We have the chance to guide how AI is implemented and how people experience it. This human-centered leadership is the missing piece in most AI strategies—and the differentiator that will set organizations apart. 

Theme #4: From Training to a Continuous Learning Leadership Culture 

What Happened:  

Most organizations have a leadership program. But the real impact happens when we consistently ask: how can we make it better? Attendees acknowledged the same truth across sessions: episodic training doesn’t deliver the behavior change their organizations need. Leaders want development that feels relevant, contextual, and continuous—not another event to attend and forget. 

The old model of "send leaders to training" is failing to create lasting impact. Instead, L&D teams are using learning that’s embedded in leaders’ day-to-day. At Gallo, that meant moving away from “moment-in-time” programs toward making development an adaptable part of how work gets done. General Dynamics Mission Systems took a different path, building a catalog-style Leadership Academy where employees and managers choose role-relevant courses together—turning development into a true partnership rather than another box to check. And Clean Harbors reminded us that you don’t need to start big. They demonstrated how “start small, prove value” can spark the momentum needed to build a true learning culture. 

That’s why DDI launched LeaderLab, a new platform designed to deliver the ultra-personalized, contextual experiences leaders are craving. From tailored learning paths to an AI chatbot that acts as a trusted support, LeaderLab is built to provide leaders with what they need, exactly when they need it. 

The Takeaway 

In 2025, personalization at scale is table stakes. Leaders expect development that reflects their specific challenges, delivered when they need it. The most successful learning cultures make managers co-owners of development, not just supporters.  

And timing beats volume every time. The organizations we spoke to that see real impact focus on delivering the right capability at the moment of need—rather than comprehensive programs that cover everything. 

The real power comes from technology meeting culture halfway. LeaderLab's AI chatbot and personalized recommendations revolutionize how leaders access development, delivering exactly what they need when they need it. But technology reaches its full potential only in cultures that prioritize learning as a shared responsibility. It's the combination that creates transformation: cutting-edge tools in the hands of leaders who are ready to use them. 

The end goal for these L&D professionals isn't to produce “more trained leaders.” It’s to help leaders naturally develop themselves and others as part of how they show up every day. 

Theme #5: The Summit Effect: When Leaders Lift Leaders  

What Happened 

In Scottsdale’s November sunshine, HR and L&D leaders did what they do best: connect and learn from each other. In every workshop, roundtable, or coffee conversation, peer-to-peer learning took on a life of its own. 

Client stories inspired new approaches and sparked creative solutions. State Farm shared how they reached more than 2,000 leaders in the first year of their program, energizing those facing similar scale challenges. 

Human vulnerability came through in sessions like "How Small Teams Make a Big Impact," creating space for leaders to connect over the real challenges they face: limited resources, stretched teams, and high expectations to deliver. One attendee captured the feeling perfectly: the sessions “brought all the human elements into what it takes to do business really well.” 

The Takeaway 

The real magic of the Better Leaders Summit happened in the conversations, connections, and "aha" moments shared by people who understand the work of developing leaders. (Not to mention the shared joy of creating a paint-by-number mural or cuddling with adorable, romping puppies.)  

An excited attendee shared that Summit is a must-have in her yearly plan—not just for the learning, but because it’s how she “fills her cup” and returns refreshed. 

Each story and conversation reminded us that no one builds great leaders alone. 

Closing Section: What's Next  

Put 180+ leadership experts in one place and watch what happens: ideas collide, perspectives expand, and leaders walk away better because of each other. Across the HR and L&D community, leaders are embracing true collaboration to accelerate transformation. 

Looking forward, we challenge HR and talent leaders to step into the role of strategic anticipators—those who can see what’s coming, shape it with intention, and build the leadership capabilities their organizations will rely on. 

Join us next year for Better Leaders Summit 2026 from November 8-11 in Paradise Valley, Arizona to be part of the connections and fresh leadership insights shaping how organizations move forward. 

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