Planning for Growth in 2027? Start With the Leaders Who Will Carry It Forward.

Growth is often a headline in a strategic plan. More reach. Greater impact. New opportunities.

But what will that growth ask of the people leading it?

As you plan for 2027, consider not only where you want your organization to go, but how your leaders will need to grow along the way. They may need clearer priorities, greater confidence in their decisions, or new ways to share responsibility.

Preparing your leaders for the future is part of the growth strategy.

And growth does not have to mean getting bigger. It can mean deepening your impact, strengthening collaboration, or building the capacity to sustain your mission. Sometimes the most meaningful growth comes from helping the people already on your team work together with greater clarity and shared ownership.

 Organizational growth and leadership growth belong in the same conversation.

In Business Not Battle, I share four questions to help organizations move from their current reality toward a more effective future. As you look toward 2027, use them to connect your plans with the people who will carry them forward.

These questions guide effective strategic planning for organizations of all types and programs of all kinds. Let's look a little closer at them.

1. Where are we now?

Before choosing your next destination, take an honest look at where you are.

Start with strengths. Where is your team already effective? What do people do well together? Which leadership habits help your organization deliver on its promises?

Then look at where today’s responsibilities are stretching your capacity.

Perhaps one leader has become the person everyone turns to for decisions. Perhaps your team has welcomed new people, but expectations still live mostly in the heads of those who have been there longest. Or perhaps collaboration depends on relationships that have not had much time or attention lately.

These are useful insights, not judgments. They help you understand what your next season will require.

Gather perspectives from across the organization, including people closest to the work and those you serve. Ask thoughtful questions:

• What helps us do our best work together?

• Where do responsibilities or priorities need greater clarity?

• What are we relying on a few people to carry?

Pay attention to the unwritten culture, too. What happens when someone asks for help, offers a different perspective, or makes a decision?

Your starting point includes both your results and the everyday experiences shaping them.

2. Where do we want to be?

“Grow the organization” is a direction. It is not yet a shared picture of success.

What would meaningful growth look like by the end of 2027?

For one organization, it might mean expanding into a new market. For another, it might mean serving existing clients more effectively, developing emerging leaders, or creating enough operational consistency for senior leaders to focus on the future.

Define the organizational outcome. Then ask what leadership behaviors would support it.

If you want stronger collaboration, what would people do differently? If you want more shared ownership, which decisions would leaders be prepared to make? If you want to expand your impact, how would your team protect the quality and relationships that make your work matter?

For example, “build leadership capacity” might become: “Team leaders can set priorities, communicate expectations, and make decisions within clearly understood responsibilities.”

That gives people something concrete to practice and recognize.

It also invites you to reconsider familiar routines. A meeting, report, or approval process may have served you well in one season without being the best fit for the next.

The goal is not change for its own sake. It is a clearer connection between how you lead and where you want to go.

3. How could we get there?

This is the invitation to get curious.

Before narrowing your options, make room for possibilities. In Chapter 7, I encourage organizations to explore ideas before immediately filtering them through constraints of time, money, or resources. An idea that initially seems impractical may contain the beginning of a workable solution.

What could help your leaders grow into the future you have described?

You might explore mentoring, coaching, facilitated conversations, shared learning experiences, or opportunities to practice new responsibilities with support.

A developing leader might benefit from guiding a cross-functional project. An established team might need dedicated time to clarify how decisions are made. A new manager might need both practical development and a trusted person with whom to reflect.

Outside perspective can help, too. Someone who is not immersed in your daily routines can ask questions that reveal assumptions and open possibilities.

Invite your people into this conversation. Ask what would help them contribute with greater confidence and effectiveness.

Leadership development becomes more relevant when it connects to real responsibilities, real relationships, and the work your organization is preparing to do.

4. How will we get there?

Possibilities become progress when you turn them into commitments.

Choose the development priorities that most directly support your goals. Then give them the same attention you give other strategic investments.

Name the owner. Allocate resources. Set milestones. Decide how you will recognize progress.

If your plan calls for leaders to take greater ownership, identify which responsibilities they will assume, what preparation they need, and who will support them. If stronger collaboration is the priority, decide where teams will practice it and when they will reflect on what is changing.

Put leadership development into the plan and the budget, not on a wish list.

You do not have to close every gap at once. Smaller, deliberate steps can build capacity while allowing people to learn and adjust.

Keep checking in. Are the changes helping? What needs refinement? How will new team members learn the expectations you are establishing?

A culture of effectiveness needs ongoing care.

Let growth reach beyond your organization

Preparing your leaders for 2027 is an investment in the people who will turn your plans into everyday decisions and meaningful results.

That investment can also extend beyond your own team.

Through Business Not Battle’s Corporate Impact Partnership, investing in your leadership team also funds leadership development for a nonprofit you choose. Your commitment to growth helps strengthen leadership within your organization while supporting mission-driven work in your community.

Where do you want to grow in 2027, and what will your leaders need to get there?

Let’s explore those questions in a 15-minute discovery conversation and see whether the partnership is a fit.