By Jazmine Boatman, Ph.D.
Do you fill out those diner satisfaction surveys they give you with your check at restaurants? I do. Those surveys about “What’s the State of Consumerism today”? Yep, those too. I’ve also filled out customer satisfaction surveys after a few internet purchases I have made. As someone who, frankly, makes a living out of survey research, I feel compelled (and a little guilted) into doing others’ 5-point ratings to help someone else try to learn a little more about what I think.
Although rating the quality of the beef pot roast last night is a little different than rating the quality of leadership in business today, there’s the same underlying inquisitiveness of wanting to state your opinion and hearing what others have to say. You never know if something juicy (unlike the pot roast) will turn up.
DDI’s last Global Leadership Forecast asked more than 12,000 leaders from around the world what they thought and only 4 in 10 leaders were satisfied with what their organizations offered to develop their leadership capabilities. It was particularly interesting to find that HR professionals and leaders seemed to hold the other primarily responsible for the failure of these development programs. Trend surveys like this are not only practical from a continuous improvement perspective for organizations (What can we do better?) but innately fascinating from a voyeur perspective (What are others doing wrong?).
This year’s Global Leadership Forecast pushes inquiring minds further by asking not only about satisfaction with current leadership practices, but what is needed in the future to be successful, and we also partnered with Gary Hamel to ask about management innovation. Are organizations finally pushing past the status quo to open the doors for more flexibility and innovation that might just be the key to their future survival? Maybe you don’t need to build good survey “karma” like I do, but aren’t you a little curious?
Jazmine Boatman , Ph.D., is Manager of the Center for Applied Behavioral Research at Development Dimensions International (DDI).
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