I

met with a client yesterday who had an all-too-common complaint. She asked for Gallup’s ideas on creating a stronger leadership development program, and we obliged by sharing some practices we’ve seen work well in other organizations.

Our client gave us a wry smile and said that her company has done many of the things we were suggesting, but that the effort produced little or no benefit. Her frustration was palpable as she described her organization’s “check the box” mentality.

Many leaders have a clear vision for where they want to take their organization but find that for all their effort at change, they are still at “base camp.” It frustrates these visionaries to see effort going to waste with little progress to show. They want to know how they can get their people not only to do the activities, but also get the desired result from them.

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