Ask most leadership teams to name their top five leaders and the answer comes quickly. Ask who would step into those roles next week if one of them left, and the you’ll get a whole world of silence. Organizations say they have a pipeline. Look closely and what you will find is a list of names, with few that have made and been accountable for a decision that counted.
A list of names is not a bench. A bench is made of people who have played, and are ready to play again at a higher level – and you won’t find them on the sidelines waiting.
Bench Strength Is Resilience
The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) surveyed 759 business and HR leaders for its September 2026 research on succession. Only 40 percent said their organizations are effective at building enough bench strength for critical roles. Those that are effective were more than two and a half times as likely to be high-performance organizations.
Depth is what lets a company absorb a resignation, a burnout or a hard quarter without losing its footing. It is infrastructure, in the same way good governance is. Don’t get me wrong, this is not about having one named successor for every seat. i4cp points to talent pools instead, and found that high performers were eight times as likely to include entry-level and frontline managers in succession work. The bench starts much earlier than most boards think, which is why I think we need to be making leadership part of every role.
People Develop on the Field
Nobody becomes ready by watching. Judgment, trust and sense-making grow through live decisions with something at stake: a budget to own, a client to win, a difficult conversation to lead. For sure, people will get some of it wrong. Add coaching and a proper debrief, and the mistakes become the curriculum.
Ask yourself how many people on your succession list have run something real in the past twelve months. If the answer is “few”, you have a waiting room. Hand over the ball, stay close, and talk it through afterwards. Take a look at Succession Planning: Building Up the Next Generation of Leaders as a useful starting point for your team.
Depth Needs Range
A bench of people who think, train and look alike has one kind of play. And that play is likely to be wholly predictable.
This is where inclusion and purpose show their strategic value. The question for you – as a leader – is whether your decisions match the values you state, and who gets chosen to lead next. McKinsey’s Diversity Matters research links more diverse executive teams with stronger financial performance. It shows a relationship rather than proof of cause, and this is one concept worth taking seriously.
Look at your last ten promotions. If most went to people like the person who made the decision (you or your people and culture team), the system is selecting for familiarity. Fix the system. Change it up. Define what the role needs, widen who is considered, and sponsor people from outside the usual circle. I have some tips in Do Women in Leadership Offer More Opportunities for Their Female Employees?
Automation Changes Where Leaders Come From
Research, drafting, data cleanup and first-pass analysis have always been the work that taught junior people how to think. McKinsey’s analysis of early-career talent in the agentic organization notes that AI now handles much of this work, and warns that organizations could end up with thinner leadership benches as a result. The authors also say large-scale displacement is not yet evident, which makes this the right time to act.
Design entry-level roles for development. Pair junior and senior people, rotate people early, and teach them to challenge AI output rather than accept it. Tell your people where AI is used and what stays with humans. Trust is part of what makes people willing to grow into bigger roles. And perhaps most importantly, this creates the talent pipeline you’ll need to remain competitive.
Nina Nets It Out
Bench strength is built by giving people real work, real responsibility and a fair chance of being chosen. Depth keeps you steady and range keeps you sharp, and both come from decisions you make now. Look at your last ten promotions and ask who is ready to step in tomorrow. Then put someone on the field this month.