DDI Honors Six Organizations With 2026 Customer Awards at Better Leaders Summit

This year's winners tied leadership development to acquisitions, rapid growth, and global expansion.

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- DDI, the global authority in leadership development for more than five decades, today announced the winners of its 2026 Customer Awards. Six organizations were recognized at Better Leaders Summit 2026, DDI's annual client conference, held November 9–11 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The summit brought together more than 215 HR and talent leaders from 125 organizations. Highlights included new research from DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2027, a keynote on AI and leadership from Tom Vice, Chairman and CEO of Astrion, and a first look at DDI's innovation roadmap.

The Customer Awards recognize clients that connected leadership development to a pressing business need and have the numbers to prove it. This year's winners span three categories:

High Impact Award: Honors organizations proving that leadership drives business outcomes.

• Astrion: After growing through acquisitions, Astrion launched its Alpine Leadership Program with direct involvement from its CEO and executives. Participants, managers, and direct reports confirmed gains in all eight measured leadership behaviors, and two graduates have been promoted to vice president.
• State Farm: Its Inspiring Leadership initiative reached 1,044 leaders across 12 business areas in nine months by combining expert-led instruction, application, AI-enabled reinforcement and peer collaboration. Participants rated the program's potential to improve business outcomes 4.76 out of 5.

Rising Star Award: Spotlights new leadership initiatives that already deliver results.

• VytlOne: Operating in 47 states and opening 20 new pharmacies in 2026, VytlOne launched AXLR8 to prepare emerging leaders for that growth. Its first cohort delivered four executive-sponsored business projects, including one that modeled $1.17 million in annual savings.
• Woodward: Its new leader programs reached more than 500 participants across the U.S., Europe, and Asia in seven months. Sessions averaged about 88% capacity with growing waitlists, supported by 11 certified internal facilitators.

Innovation in Action Award: Celebrates creative approaches to leadership development that deliver measurable impact.

• Lexicon: It built Forging Futures, a four-level leadership framework for a geographically dispersed construction and steel fabrication workforce. With onsite delivery, shorter sessions, and internal co-facilitators, it reached 279 leaders across six divisions, achieving program recommendation ratings as high as 4.75 out of 5.
• Truist: Its Coaching with Care initiative makes coaching an everyday management practice through a 60-minute application lab built on DDI content. Of 243 managers trained, respondents reported a 36% gain in self-assessed coaching skill immediately after training and 41% after 30 days.

"Every one of this year's winners started with a hard business problem: uniting teams after acquisitions, preparing leaders for rapid expansion, holding one standard of leadership across continents," said Tacy M. Byham, Ph.D., CEO of DDI. "They aimed development squarely at that problem and tracked whether it worked. Development budgets go to the programs that can show results. These organizations have the proof."

See how DDI turns leadership development into business results at ddi.com/why-ddi.

About DDI

DDI is the global leadership company that helps organizations build the leaders they need today and prepare for tomorrow. For over 55 years, we've helped organizations hire, develop, and promote exceptional leaders. Across all levels from emerging leaders to C-suite executives, we deliver integrated assessment and development solutions, leveraging data to guide talent decisions and accelerate leadership growth. This Continuous Leadership Intelligence approach enables organizations to anticipate leadership needs before they become urgent and build the precise capabilities their business strategies demand. Grounded in behavioral science, DDI helps the world's leading organizations achieve lasting success through better leadership. Learn more at ddi.com.

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SOURCE DDI