February 23, 2026 4 Strategies to Close the Manufacturing Leadership Gap

Build your organization’s leadership continuity by moving talent development into the business itself rather than keeping it in HR.

By Daniel Stewart

It’s no secret that industry faces a talent crisis. As of June 2025, over 400,000 manufacturing jobs were unfilled; if current trends persist, that number could increase to a staggering 1.9 million positions by 2033.

But the shortage isn’t just on the plant floor. Manufacturing also faces a shortage of experienced and emerging leaders, from frontline managers to the C-suite.

And that shortage shows no signs of abating. Currently, 26% of the manufacturing workforce is age 55 or older, which could mean as many as 3.9 million workers retiring over the next 10 years and not enough emerging leaders to fill their roles.

Most organizations recognize that succession planning can help address leadership gaps. Unfortunately, when companies approach leadership development through a series of HR initiatives or programs, succession planning quickly becomes disconnected from the capabilities the business needs for long-term growth and stability.

In other words, development programs designed and executed in isolation often don’t prepare leaders for the real complexities they’ll face.

The solution? Move talent development into the business itself, making it part of operational leadership rather than an HR initiative. This shift transforms succession from a planning exercise to an ongoing process embedded in daily work.

Here are four practical strategies to embed succession planning in the business.

Focus Development on Critical Roles, Not Every Role

Critical roles are those that are vital to core operations, revenue, or long-term strategy. They often require a highly specialized skill set or at least six months of experience to be fully up to speed on the job. Were these roles left empty, even briefly, the business would risk failing to meet its short- and long-term goals.

A good place to start succession planning is by asking leaders to identify critical roles in their areas of responsibility. In manufacturing, critical roles are usually related to production and quality. Which positions are the most vital to meeting goals? What makes those roles critical?

For example, while everyone is responsible for risk management to some degree, certain roles might require specialized training or certifications. If those requirements take several months to complete, it’s worthwhile to make sure there are always enough people with the correct certifications that the company will never be forced to slow down its operations.

Note that we are talking about critical roles, not critical people. Every organization has three kinds of roles: critical, important, and essential. The people who fill those roles are all valuable, but some have roles or functions that can be performed by others more easily than those with critical roles.

Have Leaders Identify and Develop Their Own Successors

Leaders who know their roles and their teams well are best positioned to choose their successors. After all, who knows better what it takes to lead their teams—someone from HR, or the leader who’s already doing what’s required to deliver results?

Every leader in the company should define the specific requirements a potential successor needs and then identify one or two potential successors who are already well on their way to meeting those requirements.

These potential successors don’t have to be ready to step into the role immediately, especially if the leader has no plans to leave the organization. Rather, they should be excellent contributors in their existing roles and have development potential.

As leaders identify potential successors, they should also identify the gaps in each person’s skills and knowledge. Leaders can work with these possible successors to intentionally develop skills and transfer institutional knowledge.

Make Talent Development Part of Every Manager’s Job

While there is still a role for HR in succession planning and training and development, every manager or leader should become a talent development professional as part of daily responsibilities.

From a workplace perspective, managers are in the best position to evaluate, coach, and develop the people who report to them. Rather than wait for annual evaluations and feedback conversations, managers should become accustomed to giving and receiving regular feedback in the course of normal work.

Becoming a coaching manager is key to retaining employees and keeping them engaged. Research shows that when leaders are committed to developing their direct reports, engagement improves. A 2024 survey from The Grossman Group and The Harris Poll showed that the top indicator of employee engagement is when a manager invests in the employee’s success. Engaged workers are more likely to stay, strengthening retention and building your next generation of leaders.

Learning to coach and develop the people they lead can also help manager engagement and performance. According to the 2025 Gallup State of the Global Workplace Survey, teaching managers effective coaching techniques boosts their performance by 20-28%. Managers also report higher levels of “thriving” with manager training—especially when someone actively encourages their development.

Build Leadership Skills Through Real Work

There’s no question that emerging leaders can learn a lot through formal leadership development programs, academic tracks, and independent study. Those are all important aspects of manufacturing leadership development.

However, the place where most people develop the most skills?

On the job.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, the 70-20-10 model is still the best for developing leaders who can continue to learn and grow over their entire careers. This framework prescribes 10% of experience from coursework and training, 20% from developmental relationships, and a whopping 70% from challenging on-the-job experiences and assignments.

Leaders need to offer their direct reports ample opportunity to pursue stretch assignments and solve complex challenges on the job. Managers should work across functions with other managers where appropriate to create cross-functional teams that will give multiple employees opportunity to grow and learn other parts of the business.

Moving succession planning from HR to the business is the first step toward building long-term stability and continuity across the manufacturing landscape. When the business takes ownership of developing its current and future leaders, organizations will realize both business results and people results.

About the Author:
Daniel Stewart is President of Stewart Leadership, which specializes in leadership development and succession planning for manufacturing and industrial organizations. With over 20 years of experience, he has advised Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies including Lockheed Martin, Briggs & Stratton, and Canon Medical Systems on building sustainable leadership pipelines and strengthening organizational capability.

Read more from the author:

The Human Side of Strategic Succession Planning | Stewart Leadership, April 15, 2022

Eight Skills of Great Coaching Managers | Stewart Leadership, February 19, 2019

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