According to McKinsey, our organizations make 4 common mistakes when they set out to develop leaders. Here are ways to avoid those and make your efforts succeed.

1. Before planning a leadership initiative, ask yourselves "what, precisely is this program for?". That answer will help you identify a small number of competencies that will make a significant difference to your performance.

2. Tie leadership development to real on-the-job projects that have a buseinss impact and improve learning. Don't just provide the benefit of going off-site and reflecting.

3. Identify the mindsets of your leaders that drive their behavior which will be uncomfortable but will make learning last. For example, promoting delegation and empowerment is good in theory, but will not last if participants have a "controlling" mindset. That mindset needs to be surfaced and replaced with something that will cause lasting change.

4. Measure the results of leadership initiatives beyond participant feedback. Track and measure changes in leadership performance over time, for example through a 360-degree feedback process at the beginning of the program followed by another one after 6-12 months. This can be modelled by the CEO who can go through this process and publish results (good and bad) for everyone to see.