Leadership
How to Develop Individual Contributors into Emerging Leaders
Developing effective frontline leaders isn’t easy. Discover Korn Ferry’s four essential steps to transform top performers into successful people leaders.
April 14, 2025
IC vs. Manager—Developing Tomorrow’s Emerging Leaders
Frontline leaders are the backbone of your company’s success.
As more organizations adopt agile structures, these leaders bridge the gap between senior teams and employees, transforming strategy into action. With 80% of the workforce looking to them for guidance, they have the power to drive performance—or derail it.
That’s why preparing individual contributors (ICs) to take on roles as frontline leaders needs to be a priority.
However, developing confident, effective frontline leaders isn’t easy.
It requires helping them to:
- Adopt a people-first mindset
- Lead without micromanaging
- Navigate tough conversations
- Take accountability
- Build high-performing teams
Adding to the pressure, some organizations have rushed to fill leadership roles, often promoting ICs who aren’t fully prepared, creating a significant skills gap.
So how can leaders set them up for success?
Here are four key steps to help ICs transition into management and lead with confidence.
Step 1. Define What “Great” Leadership Looks Like
When it comes to leadership development for individual contributors, the first stage is to clearly define what a successful leader looks like in your organization.
This can be done through Success Profiles. A well-defined Success Profile not only sets clear expectations but also helps ICs assess their own capabilities and motivations, identifying both strengths and areas for growth.
For instance, if your business goal is digital transformation, look for competencies like strategic thinking, network building, effective communication, courage, and resilience.
Remember that technical skills are still important though. “You're not going to promote someone into a frontline manager role unless they're already a very strong individual contributor,” says Korn Ferry’s Scott Erker.
But it takes more than technical ability to be a good leader.
8 Competencies for Successful People Leaders
Based on millions of assessments across industries, Korn Ferry research reveals that effective people leaders must:
- Instill Trust
Honesty, authenticity, and integrity are essential qualities. In practice, leading by example and taking accountability for mistakes are key actions. - Demonstrate Courage
Navigating difficult business situations with confidence is crucial. This includes making tough decisions and having challenging conversations with team members and stakeholders. - Develop Talent
Helping teams meet career and organizational goals is vital. Effective leaders provide coaching, create development opportunities, and offer regular feedback to help team members achieve personal objectives. - Drive Productivity
Work must be directed efficiently and effectively. By focusing teams on high-priority tasks and setting clear expectations, they ensure all members are aligned toward a shared goal. - Deliver Results
Driving outcomes consistently in a tough business climate is essential. Success is achieved by guiding and motivating teams to overcome obstacles and headwinds. - Ensure Accountability
Both leaders and teams must take responsibility for their actions. Ensuring follow-through on commitments, owning decisions, and viewing mistakes as learning opportunities are key practices. - Foster Collaboration
Building strong partnerships across the organization is necessary for success. Encouraging cross-functional communication and ensuring all voices and viewpoints are heard helps foster an inclusive and collaborative environment. - Build Effective Teams
High-performing teams leverage diverse skills and perspectives. Hiring and developing a mix of skills while creating an environment that welcomes new ideas is crucial for team success.
Step 2. Assess Potential Leaders in Your Team
The next step is to identify ICs in your organization with leadership potential. This isn’t easy.
Two-thirds of HR professionals say their companies miss high-potential leaders by not looking deeply enough internally.
To overcome this challenge, a more strategic approach is crucial. Here are three effective ways to uncover your future leaders.
Individual Contributor vs. Manager: How to Spot Your Next Emerging Leader
A. Assessments
Leadership potential assessments—including in-depth interviews, psychometric self-assessments, and business simulations—are effective because they:
- Uncover talent often overlooked by traditional performance metrics, job titles, or gut instincts
- Eliminate bias, ensuring a fairer selection process
- Focus on traits, motivations, and key experiences that indicate leadership potential
- Provide a data-driven, scientific approach to identifying top talent
- Highlight gaps in your organization’s leadership readiness
B. Performance Reviews
These offer a clear view of an individual’s past performance, providing a baseline to assess how well they align with your Success Profile and leadership expectations.
Key factors to consider in a performance review include:
- Achievement of objectives
Did they meet or exceed their goals and go beyond their core individual contributor responsibilities? - Collaboration
How effectively have they worked across teams and functions? - Leadership behaviors
Have they demonstrated key leadership qualities, such as the ability to inspire and guide others?
C. Feedback from Colleagues and Managers
This provides a well-rounded view of a person’s leadership potential.
Managers typically focus on performance, while colleagues can offer insights into collaboration and interpersonal skills.
Other benefits include:
- Unbiased insights
Feedback from multiple sources helps minimize personal biases - 360-degree assessment
L&D leaders can evaluate both technical skills and behavioral competencies - Uncovering hidden gems
This feedback can reveal individuals who might not be obvious leadership candidates
Step 3. Design Tailored Training Programs
Most individual contributors aren’t fully prepared to step into leadership. They need training in how to become a manager.
But not just any training will do. It needs to be personalized to the individual.
The content should match their L&D needs, but how it’s delivered is just as important. No two people learn the same way, so the approach must be flexible.
“In the past, we’d pull people out of work for three, four, or five-day workshops and send them back. But we found the transfer of skills to the job just wasn’t happening,” says Erker.
“Now, we take a more action-learning approach, a more personalized approach. We give people small chunks of information, allow them to practice, and then apply those skills to their role. We also consider adult learning styles, providing a wide variety of modalities and tools for learning and application of skills to the job.”
AI training and development tools can help support this by delivering customized training experiences that adapt to an individual's preferred learning style.
Want to Take the Guesswork Out of Training Emerging Leaders?
Korn Ferry’s People Leader Development Program is an innovative solution for leadership talent development.
It combines talent assessments, personalized coaching, and leadership development frameworks. These targeted learning solutions equip individuals with the skills, behaviors, and mindsets needed to lead effectively and drive business success.
Step 4. Introduce Coaching Programs
Coaching can play an important role in helping ICs develop the values and behaviors needed to become leaders.
“A coach can help us recognize behavior patterns, manage emotions, break unproductive habits, and stay motivated through challenges,” says Erker.
But coaching offers so much more when it comes to individual contributor career development.
Here are some other benefits:
3 Ways Coaching Helps Grow Emerging Leaders
1. Builds Confidence:
It can equip new leaders with the self-assurance to make decisions and guide their teams effectively.
2. Shifts Mindsets:
It can help a person transition from an individual contributor to more of a strategic thinker.
3. Improves Emotional Intelligence:
It can help a person develop skills to navigate relationships and handle challenges.
While one-on-one coaching is invaluable, peer-to-peer coaching can also be incredibly effective.
Peer coaching pods—informal groups where colleagues share insights and learning experiences—help reinforce leadership concepts in real-world scenarios and create a supportive, collaborative culture.
“And when we add an AI coach to the mix, we can provide just-in-time guidance that complements these human interactions, offering a powerful learning toolset,” adds Erker.
Leadership & Professional Development
Help your people exceed their potential, so they can unlock yours
Developing Your Future Leaders
Frontline managers will continue to play a vital role in organizations, making it essential for leaders to identify talent early and focus on guiding them on how to grow into a leadership role.
But leadership development is a high-stakes exercise.
Discover the eight major challenges faced by L&D leaders and expert solutions to help you address them in your organization.
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