Only 13% of leaders are prepared to lead change, HR leaders warn of a widening gap

Leadership readiness for change is deteriorating sharply, even as disruption accelerates across industries, according to new research from global leadership firm DDI.

The report on leadership forecast shows that only 13% of HR leaders believe their organisation’s leaders are very capable of anticipating and reacting to change. Just 18% of leaders say they personally feel very prepared to lead through change. More concerning, leaders’ sense of preparedness has fallen by nearly half in five years, dropping from 25% to 13%.

“The global, technological, and competitive landscape has translated into a continuous transformation agenda for companies,” said Tacy M. Byham, CEO of DDI. “To keep pace, organisations must view change as standard operating procedure.”

Executives lag despite authority

The report, drawn from more than 100,000 frontline, mid-level, and executive leaders, points to a systemic gap in change leadership capability across all levels.

The weakest performance appears at the top. Only 8% of executives demonstrate strong change leadership capability, despite holding the greatest positional authority. Among mid-level leaders, 30% are strong at leading change, though one in four still requires significant development. 

The findings suggest that experience and seniority alone do not translate into effective change leadership.

The behaviors leaders struggle with most

While leaders often have the authority to mandate change, DDI’s data shows they struggle with the human behaviors required to turn change into sustained transformation.

Among executives, only 1% are strong at visibly rewarding change, often assuming alignment follows once direction is set. Just 4% demonstrate strength in stretching boundaries, reflecting hesitation to challenge entrenched norms or disrupt short-term performance. Only 11% are strong at addressing resistance, with dissent often perceived as disruptive or personal.

Frontline and emerging leaders, meanwhile, struggle to mobilize others without formal authority, with just 13% strong at actively engaging teams in change initiatives.

Who is better prepared?

Readiness to lead change appears higher among groups exposed to faster, more fluid environments. Gen Z leaders are 1.5 times more likely to feel prepared to anticipate and respond to rapid change. 

According to HR leaders, organisations with 100 or fewer employees are twice as likely as large enterprises to report that their leaders are prepared, likely due to fewer structural constraints.

“There’s a stark disconnect between the accelerated change organizations face and leaders’ ability to mobilize teams in uncertainty,” said Rosey Rhyne, senior research manager at DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research. She added that leaders with access to high-quality assessment and development programs are 5.6 times more likely to effectively anticipate and respond to change.

A growing trust gap

The leadership gap is surfacing at the employee level. Nearly 79% of employees report low trust in organisational change, while 39% of leaders say change is a major source of stress for their teams, according to Gartner.

Despite heavy investment in strategy, systems, and change methodologies, many organisations continue to struggle because the challenge is not planning, it is leadership capability.

The report underscores a central conclusion - as transformation becomes continuous rather than episodic, organisations must rethink how they develop leaders, not just to manage change, but to lead people through it.