One complaint that I hear from business leaders is that their organization lacks good young leaders. My response is always, “What are you doing to develop these young leaders in your organization?”

An underutilized part of leadership is developing the next generation of leaders. People that can help take the company to new heights or provide stability if someone in the leadership team unexpectedly leaves.

You can’t just leave it up to luck and hope that these people suddenly emerge. Unfortunately, this is what many companies seem to do. Instead, it is necessary to have a system in place to help develop these men and women to be successful leaders. Here are seven strategies that I recommend:

1. 1-on-1 Conversations - Take time to talk with people about leadership, their goals, and how they are doing. Let them know that you believe in them and what they are capable of achieving. These conversations will help give them the skills and confidence to lead.

2. Mentoring program - Have a program in place where new hires are able to be mentored by an experienced member of the organization. Make sure to set clear guidelines on what this will look like and provide training for the mentors. This is a great way to help strengthen relationships and culture as well as develop future leaders.

3. Training - Provide your employees opportunities where they are able to learn new leadership skills and grow. This may be bringing in experts to lead workshops or it can be allowing your employees to go to conferences or take online programs. Encourage them to take advantage of these opportunities and provide the time and resources to make them feasible.

4. Opportunities - Leadership development is a combination of knowledge and practice. If you want someone to be an excellent leader then you need to give them opportunities to lead. Yes, this will mean that they will make some mistakes. It is about seeing the big picture and knowing that this will help them and the company in the long term.

5. Provide them with feedback - As you are giving people opportunities it is critical to provide constructive feedback on their performance. Let them know what they are doing well and areas they could be performing better. On areas of improvement get their perspective as well as provide suggestions from your experience. Hiring a Leadership Coach for them can be a valuable source of feedback.

6. Identify future leaders - It is important to continuously be on the lookout for future leaders within your organization. Seeing who has the personality, intelligence, work ethic, integrity, and mindset to be a great leader. The key to this is to stay open-minded. Just because someone doesn’t immediately demonstrate those characteristics doesn’t mean that they can’t develop them. Oftentimes, it just takes them feeling comfortable and confident to be able to step into it.

7. Hiring process - When you are hiring think about if this person could be a future leader for the company. Maybe their experience isn’t as good but they have the traits of a dynamic leader. This is something that you must consider and decide on how much you value leadership within your company.

The key to implementing these strategies is to sit down with the leadership team and come up with a specific plan on how you develop the next generation of leaders. By doing this you are investing in your people and the long-term success of the company.