For the past several years, I’ve been part the faculty responsible for teaching a leadership development program within the Navy. During a recent workshop, we were discussing how they can develop others and how organic, in-role experiences can promote autonomous growth. When development is woven into the work, the work itself can become the training. No approvals or budget required.

That’s when a commander, sitting toward the back of the room, raised her hand and said: “This makes sense. But it could also be misused and exploited to get ever-increasing levels of work done. How can we ensure that the experience actually drives development?”

I welcomed the pushback. Because she’s right. Workloads have ballooned, and technology now allows many of us to toil away anytime, anywhere. A recent MIT Sloan Management Review article by Melissa Swift introduced the expression “work intensification,” which aligns with the number of employees who routinely report being overrun and overwhelmed with priorities. Microsoft coined the term “infinite workday” in its recent Global Work Trend Index Special Report to describe how increasingly blurred work/life boundaries have extended traditional work hours, often contributing to fatigue, burnout and reduced well-being.

It’s tempting for leaders to reframe everyday tasks as development opportunities simply to justify the workload. And that’s where growth-washing comes in. Like greenwashing — presenting something as sustainable when it’s not — growth-washing establishes a false narrative that exacerbates the current conditions and erodes trust.

Leaders are right to push back and question how we can realistically (and ethically) incorporate development into today’s workplace. Here are three best practices:

Make Sure It’s Development

Not all work qualifies as growth, but an experience that directly aligns with someone’s development goals does. So, the first step for leaders and employees is to clarify growth goals.

• What does that employee want to achieve?
• What skills do they want to learn?
• What do they want to be able to do in the future?

Without this clarity, it’s impossible to distinguish authentic opportunities for development from workload expansion. Is there a breadcrumb trail (or, even better, a bright line) between someone’s growth goal and a proposed development experience? That’s the growth-washing test. And when passed, it unlocks unbeatable alignment, motivation and engagement with the work.

Make Time for Development

Even when fully aligned with one’s goals, additional experiences still represent something beyond what an employee is already doing. And if nothing else comes off their plate, chances are the learning — if it happens at all — will be lost or rushed.

That’s why effective leaders proactively negotiate the workload and trade-offs. They explore what can be removed to make room for what’s being added. They work with employees to determine where technology and artificial intelligence (AI) might streamline tasks or where delegation might shift capacity. They replace magical thinking with realistic recalibration to create the space for growth.

Make Sure It Sticks

Development is only half of the experience. It’s in the reflection and unpacking that insights are formed, skills are crystalized and growth is recognized. That’s why another hallmark of legitimate development is a proactive plan for transforming the experience into learning. This can be as simple as pre-scheduling checkpoints to ensure that learning (not just business) results remain front-of-mind and are tracking toward goals. Encourage reflection through journaling, conversations with peers or one-on-ones with leaders. Leadership commitment to follow-up signals a genuine and meaningful development effort.

Final Thoughts

The commander’s question lingers: is it real development or just more work? Growth-washing blurs that line. Leaders who care enough to clarify, make room and follow through turn that question into a daily practice — ensuring authentic growth and sustainable results.