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Panel Proposals

Innovative Leadership

When Growth is a Strategy: Developing Leaders for the Long Haul

Wednesday, April 8, 2026
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CDT
Location: 204
CE: 1
CE Type: SHRM
Education Level: Intermediate
This session will provide insight into how leadership needs evolve as organizations grow and mature—whether through strategic expansion, generational change, or ESOP development. It emphasizes building leadership capacity at all levels by moving from ad-hoc training to intentional, system-wide development practices that develop leaders capable of stewarding companies into the future. Ultimately, attendees will leave equipped to evaluate their own organizations’ leadership approaches and identify targeted opportunities to invest in people, driving both immediate effectiveness and long-term organizational health.

NCEO Publication: Leadership Development and Succession

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand how growth shapes leadership needs over time. Learn how different types of growth—strategic expansion, generational transitions and ESOP maturity—create evolving leadership demands, and why long-term development strategies are essential to meet them.
  2. Evaluate approaches for aligning growth strategies and leadership development. Learn how to align leadership initiatives with strategy, ensuring that as your company grows, its leadership system grows with it—balancing short- and long-term capability
  3. Recognize the connection between ownership culture and leadership continuity. Appreciate how employee ownership values—shared accountability, transparency and stewardship—can be leveraged to strengthen leadership pipelines and ensure leaders emerge who embody those values.