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The Organization’s Role in Developing Leaders • 261

the instructive part was in the second question. If the participants had done
something, they did so in the first two weeks after returning home or it didn’t
happen at all. In fact, one respondent’s reply was particularly interesting. He
had left in the middle of one of the professors’ presentations. They assumed he
thought it boring or irrelevant or both. They were delighted to get the response
back that this participant had indeed implemented something. He noted, “I
left half-way in your presentation to go out and call my staff and asked them
to start that analysis. I knew if I waited, I probably would not have done it.”
That squares exactly with our experience. If you wait, nothing happens. To
believe that change will show up years after an executive development process
is contrary to all the evidence.

Apply Your “Experience”Test

Think of the best executives for whom you ever worked.

● What impact did they have on you and your performance?
● Were their groups a little more productive and creative than others or
were they a lot more productive?
● Did you perceive that they possessed multiple strengths?
● Was their success driven by their strengths or was it that they lacked
any weakness?
● Did their success push other leaders’ performance down or did their
success help to elevate others?
● Did they have any dramatic flaws?
● What impact did they have on the careers of the people who reported
to them?

We think most readers will confirm the validity of our thesis from their own
experiences. We began this book by proposing 20 insights about leadership.
In the vernacular of the old preacher, we began by telling you what we were
going to tell you, then we did our best to tell you, and now we have summa-
rized what we told you. Our hope is that the leadership tents of everyone in
your organization will constantly expand as you take these steps.