This article examines the improvement of the system for selecting, training, professionally developing, and ensuring the career advancement of promising young leaders in the civil service of Uzbekistan through sociological and institutional approaches. The empirical basis of the study consisted of semistructured interviews conducted with 50 experts drawn from the civil service, the hokimiyat system, youth policy, leadership training programs, education, and research. The data were processed using thematic coding, content analysis, and comparative interpretation. The findings show that the need for promising young leaders is primarily qualitative rather than quantitative. Experts identified strategic and analytical thinking, decision-making, team management, communication, emotional intelligence, digital literacy, an innovative approach, and ethical responsibility as the key competencies of a modern leader. At the same time, the study identified a gap between theory and practice in the training system for young leaders, insufficient practical leadership experience, inadequate institutionalization of mentoring and coaching mechanisms, bureaucratic and informal barriers to career advancement, incomplete implementation of meritocracy in practice, and problems of trust in digital assessment mechanisms. The findings were interpreted through D. North’s institutional theory, G. Becker’s human capital theory, P. Bourdieu’s concept of social capital, P. Sorokin’s theory of social mobility, J. Dewey’s concept of learning through experience, and R. Katz’s leadership competency approach. Based on the findings, an institutional mechanism for developing young leaders and the analytical “Problem → Cause → Consequence” model are proposed. The article substantiates the need to integrate meritocratic selection, competency-based assessment, continuous professional development, practical leadership, mentoring, digital monitoring, and strategic workforce forecasting into a unified system for forming a corps of young leaders in the civil service.