The 7 Best Leadership Training Companies in 2026
At Exec, we believe leadership development is one of the best investments you can make as a business. Recent research also backs up our view; Gallup found that managers who receive leadership training are up to 28% more likely to show performance improvement, with 18% higher engagement among their employees.
For companies evaluating leadership training providers in 2026, the key is to find a partner that aligns with both your culture and business objectives. But with so many providers in the market, where should you start? To help, we evaluated dozens of top providers across the US and globally, assessing them on program depth, customization, technology integration, and real-world application.
Here are 7 of the top leadership training companies to consider this year:
1. Blanchard
Blanchard has spent more than 45 years building leadership content, with SLII remaining the model most buyers recognize by name. The framework teaches managers to diagnose where a person sits on a specific goal or task, then adjust how much direction and support they provide as that person develops. Blanchard rebuilt the full SLII experience in late 2024, adding shorter formats alongside digital tools designed to keep the model in use after the workshop ends.
Key Strengths:
Widely adopted framework: SLII is in use at more than 10,000 organizations, so many companies already have managers who share its vocabulary.
Global delivery network: 300+ facilitators and consultants working across 70 countries in 29 languages.
Multiple formats: One-day and two-day in person, multi-session virtual, self-paced online, or a blended track that pairs online learning with a live practice lab.
Built-in reinforcement: An SLII app, an AI chatbot available inside Teams and Slack for a year after training, and a follow-up series that brings alumni back for refresher sessions.
Strong application rates: Blanchard's post-training studies find that 97 to 99 percent of participants are still applying what they learned three months later.
Breadth beyond SLII: Named programs covering trust, coaching, self leadership, team leadership, and change, plus a membership option for ongoing development at scale.
Train-the-trainer: Certifies internal facilitators to deliver Blanchard content in house, which suits companies running leadership development on an ongoing basis.
Notable clients: Amgen, Stellantis, Becton Dickinson, Elevance Health, Darden, Land O'Lakes, Western Digital, LexisNexis, Intuitive Surgical, WD-40, Delta Dental, and the Special Olympics.
2. Elevate Leadership
Elevate Leadership is a US-based leadership development company built around the skills leaders need in the AI era. It’s one of the fastest growing modern leadership development companies, and focuses on custom leadership programs that create true behavioral change across an organization. Their products include any combination of leadership workshops, coaching, short-form video, AI roleplays, and offsites based on a company’s needs. Coverage runs from first-time managers through senior executives and the C-Suite.
Key Strengths:
Modular program design: Workshops, 1:1 and group coaching, executive 360s, coaching office hours, short-form learning, and offsites can be mixed and matched to fit a team's stage and budget.
Coaches who have operated: Programs are designed and led by former founders, CPOs, CTOs, and senior leaders who have scaled companies themselves.
In-house instructional design: Bespoke programs are built by Elevate's own designers to reflect each company's values, culture, and strategy, rather than adapted from a standard template.
Learning Library: Short-form video content built to drop into onboarding flows, existing LMS platforms, and internal AI tools, giving managers a refresher at the moment they need it.
Coverage by level and industry: Dedicated tracks for new managers, middle managers, high-potentials, executives, and the C-Suite, plus industry-specific tracks for technology, life sciences, cybersecurity, legal, retail, energy, and more.
Proven across thousands of workshop participants: 98% said Elevate improved their confidence to lead and 95% would recommend the experience to others.
Enterprise-ready and global: SOC 2 Type II compliance with user provisioning and permission controls, delivered across North America, South America, and Europe.
Notable clients: Amazon AWS, Anthropic, Google, Stripe, Samsung, The Team (formerly Wasserman), Whatnot, BioMarin, Andreessen Horowitz, Alo Yoga, and 2K Sports.
3. Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie has been in the training business since 1912, with a focus on the human side of leadership: communication, confidence, relationship building, and public speaking, taught through the methodology behind How to Win Friends and Influence People. Delivery runs through a franchise network of local training centers rather than a central consulting arm, which keeps the curriculum standardized while letting trainers teach in local language and cultural context.
Key Strengths:
Scale and reach: Courses run in 35 languages across 80 countries, with more than 2,700 certified trainers and over 8 million graduates to date.
Recognized core programs: The Dale Carnegie Course, Leadership Training for Managers, and High Impact Presentations remain the anchors, with a sales track alongside them.
Rigorous trainer certification: Trainers complete a minimum of 150 hours of in-house development before certification and must requalify on an ongoing basis.
Formal accreditation: ISO 9001:2015 certified for training design, assessments, and trainer certification, and accredited by ACCET, with some courses carrying ACE credit recommendations.
Format flexibility: A Learn from Anywhere option lets participants switch between in-person and live online session by session rather than committing to one format upfront.
4. FranklinCovey
FranklinCovey built its business on frameworks that became bestselling books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, and Leading at the Speed of Trust. Programs teach principles first and skills second, on the premise that behavior changes when someone's underlying thinking shifts rather than when they learn a new technique. The company stopped selling courses individually in 2016 and now packages nearly everything through the All Access Pass, an annual subscription that opens the full content catalog rather than a fixed set of workshops.
Key Strengths:
Global reach: Directly owned and licensee partner offices serving clients in more than 160 countries and territories, with content translated and localized into 20+ languages.
Subscription rather than per-course pricing: The All Access Pass gives an organization unlimited access to the entire catalog, which suits companies developing several populations at once rather than running a single cohort.
Impact Platform: A proprietary learning platform included with the pass, delivering Live Online, Live In-Person, On Demand, and microlearning formats through desktop and mobile, with 360 diagnostics and automated reinforcement built in.
Impact Journeys: Year-long learning paths that organizations can assemble from FranklinCovey content and supplement with their own internal material.
Enterprise administration: LMS integration, single sign-on, and admin controls for assigning content by region, business unit, or job level.
Real-time measurement: Dashboards tracking learner progress and engagement across the organization rather than end-of-course evaluations alone.
Notable clients: Organizations across the Fortune 100 and Fortune 500, including Marriott and PepsiCo Foods North America.
5. Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry started as an executive search firm and built its leadership development practice on top of that talent infrastructure. What distinguishes the approach is the assessment data underneath it. Decades of executive evaluations feed Success Profiles, which define what strong performance looks like in a specific role and give development plans something specific to aim at. Search, assessment, succession planning, rewards, and development all sit in one firm.
Key Strengths:
Assessment-led development: Programs start from data on the individual and the role, using Korn Ferry 360 and professional development assessments to target where each leader actually needs work.
Ready to deploy programs: The People Leader Development Program pairs assessment insights with an AI-driven Dynamic Feedback tool, giving managers personalized guidance without a full custom build.
Volume of practice: Korn Ferry develops 100,000 leaders per month across sectors and industries.
Reported performance gains: The company cites an average 33% increase in performance within two months among leaders it develops, drawn from its own program measurement.
Adjacent talent services: Succession planning, rewards benchmarking, organizational strategy, and executive search run alongside development, useful for companies wanting one partner across the talent lifecycle.
6. Alchemist
Alchemist is a London-based leadership development company that starts with diagnostics rather than a curriculum. Specially designed tools are applied to the business to identify where leadership gaps actually sit, and programs are then built against those specific gaps. Leadership content is organized around business outcomes including inspiring others, leading commercial conversations, thought leadership, and leading through change. There are also separate tracks for management, professional development, and early careers.
Key Strengths:
Diagnostic-led design: Skills Checker lets a learner and their manager assess skill levels separately and compare results, so gaps are identified before a program is scoped rather than assumed.
Eight-step learning journey: A defined progression from awareness through skill building and stress-testing to ownership and mastery, with coach feedback built into the later stages.
Reinforcement after delivery: The Learning Journey app pushes mini challenges and reminders to participants once the program ends, positioned as a low-cost way to keep skills in use.
Learning platform with client control: A SCORM-compliant LXP and LMS that clients administer themselves, with gamification, internal social channels, and Microsoft Teams integration, plus the ability to load their own training content alongside Alchemist's.
Everything produced in house: Program design, digital content, games, e-learning, and bespoke apps are built by Alchemist's own designers and producers.
Actor-led practice among twelve modalities: Professionally trained actors run scenario work alongside VR and AR experiences, interactive tools, and real-time coaching.
Qualification pathways: An ILM centre since 2015 and a City & Guilds partner since 2009, with Insights Discovery accreditation since 2006 and licensed practitioner trainers on staff.
Security credentials: ISO 27001 certified since 2015 and Cyber Essentials accredited since 2017, alongside ISO 9001, with annual audits.
Notable clients: Deloitte and EY, alongside Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 brands.
7. DDI
DDI was founded in 1970 by two industrial-organizational psychologists who brought the assessment center method, originally developed for military officer selection, into corporate use. That origin still defines the company: development starts from assessment data about how someone actually behaves in role-relevant simulations, not from self-reported preferences. DDI works across the full leadership lifecycle, from hiring through development and succession, so the same data follows a leader from selection into their development plan.
Key Strengths:
Methodology: The assessment center approach and Targeted Selection, the first behavior-based interviewing system, both originated at DDI and are now industry standards used well beyond its own client base.
Behavioral simulation: Leaders are placed in scenarios that mirror the job one level up and evaluated on observed behavior.
Global scale: Roughly 1,100 employees across more than 40 offices in 26 countries, headquartered outside Pittsburgh.
The Global Leadership Forecast: Its flagship research study has run since 1999, with the 2025 edition drawing on 10,796 leaders and 2,185 HR professionals across 50-plus countries and 24 industry sectors.
Coverage at every level: Programs span first-time managers through C-suite, with content built around the transitions where leaders most often struggle.
Notable clients: Caterpillar, GE HealthCare, Hitachi Energy, Charles River Laboratories, Commvault, AtkinsRéalis, Edwards Lifesciences, and International Motors.
Conclusion
While all of the companies here are high quality, we recommend looking at your exact needs before deciding which provider to work with.
If you need a shared leadership vocabulary across a large or distributed workforce, Blanchard, FranklinCovey, and Dale Carnegie all offer proven frameworks with the scale and licensing models to reach thousands of managers consistently.
If your problem is knowing who is ready for the next role, Korn Ferry and DDI bring assessment data and connect development to hiring and succession decisions.
And if you need a program built around how your company actually works, Elevate Leadership and Alchemist design against your context rather than adapting a standard curriculum.
Whichever direction you go, agree on how you'll measure success before the program starts. Most providers will report satisfaction scores and completion rates. The number that matters is whether behavior changed, and that requires deciding upfront what you expect to see differently in six months.
