Behavioural capability in leadership development: from individual enactment to collective consequence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a recurring but underdeveloped issue in leadership development scholarship: the tendency to assume that leaders who understand effective leadership behaviour will also be able to enact it in practice. It argues that this assumption leaves an important developmental problem insufficiently explained. In response, the paper reconceptualises behavioural capability as a developable capacity for behavioural enactment and develops a cross-level conceptual framework explaining how behavioural capability becomes consequential in organisational settings. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual in nature. It critically synthesises scholarship on leadership development, competency-based leadership, emotional intelligence, relational leadership and process-based perspectives to develop an integrative conceptual framework of behavioural capability. Findings The paper argues that behavioural capability is better understood not as the possession of desirable leadership behaviours, but as a developable capacity for effective behavioural enactment. It demonstrates that although leadership development scholarship contains substantial behavioural content, behaviour is often treated indirectly and remains conceptually fragmented as a developmental concern. The paper therefore reconceptualises behavioural capability as an enactment problem, develops a cross-level conceptual framework explaining how behavioural capability becomes consequential through behavioural enactment, interaction and relational patterning and derives a set of propositions to guide future empirical research. Practical implications The paper suggests that leadership development should move beyond behavioural prescription and competency compliance towards approaches that place greater emphasis on capability formation, situated practice, relational feedback and behavioural adaptability under conditions of complexity. This has implications for how leadership development interventions are designed, supported and evaluated in organisations. Originality/value The paper contributes to leadership development scholarship by clarifying an under-theorised developmental problem: how leaders develop the capacity to enact behaviour effectively in organisational life. It introduces behavioural capability as an integrative construct that complements existing leadership perspectives by explaining how behavioural resources are translated into effective leadership practice across individual, relational and collective levels.