Assimilating New Leaders : The Key to Executive Retention [Hardcover]

Diane Downey (Author), Tom March (Author), Adena Berkman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2001

The numbers are alarming: More than 70 percent of newly hired senior executives leave their positions within the first two years. The reasons for this are numerous. Often, the hiring organization expects a new executive--especially one who arrives with a high price tag attached--to hit the ground running, with minimal assistance or supervision. The "new leader" may not understand company protocols and existing programs, or may even have been a poor match from the start. But while the reasons may vary widely, the results are the same--unexpected financial costs and organizational chaos for the hiring company, and career interruptions that the departing executive can find difficult if not impossible to overcome. "Assimilating New Leaders" presents an in-depth process for ensuring that new leaders and their hiring organizations are able to leverage each other's strengths to achieve mutually beneficial goals. While most books on the subject offer simple guidelines for orientation and socialization of entry- and mid-level employees, this timely book goes deeper: It provides both a compelling business case for the need to focus on new leader assimilation and an innovative set of tools and approaches that will help organizations integrate and retain their top executives. "Assimilating New Leaders" starts with specific strategies for ensuring a successful recruitment process, then outlines a four-stage process for weaving a new executive seamlessly into the fabric of an organization. Based on the authors' extensive experience working with senior managers and filled with numerous case studies, checklists, activities, and worksheets designed to help monitor each stage of the process, the book features: * A "reciprocal impact" assimilation model that outlines how both the organization and the individual can work toward their mutual assimilation goals * Pre-hire strategies that go beyond "fit" to determine whether a candidate is the right choice for an organization at a particular point in time * Specific activities that allow an organization to lay the groundwork for a new leader's successful entry * Ways to assist new leaders in digesting their new environment--and adapting previously held assumptions to new circumstances and realities * Steps for helping the new leader solidify his or her position and emerge as an organizationwide resource and contributor Since each new executive represents the future of an organization, it is important--in fact imperative--that the success of their relationship not be left to happenstance and luck. "Assimilating New Leaders" provides a step-by-step program for ensuring a new leader's ability to survive and thrive from his or her first day in an organization. In addition, it greatly enhances the organization's chances of fostering an orderly transition--and a successful, long-term relationship.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Newly hired senior executives don't need any help, right? After all, they're getting paid top dollar for knowing their stuff!

The reality is that executives often do need guidance and support when joining an organization. In fact, a recent survey reported that more than 70% of newly hired executives left their jobs within the first two years! These missteps can wreak havoc on subordinates, departments, customers, suppliers--and ultimately the bottom line.

Assimilating New Leaders offers a way to turn around this abysmal turnover rate by proposing an original four-stage process for successfully assimilating new leaders into an organization. By employing this dynamic new model and examining the book's abundance of real-life examples, readers will learn how to:

* Anticipate the potential pitfalls of leadership transitions

* Minimize disruption to business cycles and processes

* Give new leaders the tools they need to succeed

* Understand how to recruit--and retain--the right senior leaders

* Realize the organization's return on investment in the new leader.

About the Author

Downey has worked in the field of management and organizational development for more than 25 years and is president of Downey Associates International. March is a consultant with Downey Associates International.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814406459
• ISBN-13: 978-0814406458
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any new leader or aspiring leader!, November 20, 2001

By 

Sheila Oh (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assimilating New Leaders : The Key to Executive Retention (Hardcover)

How many times have you read a book and then found yourself wishing, if only I had had this book way back when.....In this case, I kept finding myself saying, "if only I had had this book when I started this new job, I would have known that I wasn't alone in what I was going through." Apparently, the trials and frustrations of organizational politics and culture come in a common and predictable form. This book is full of insights and tips about how to build relationships and influence in an organization quickly and strategically. I found the author's description of the four stages of assimilation process to be particularly insightful. The psychology of the assimilation process really resonated with the experience I've had time and time again each time I've taken on a new job. While the author's assimilation model does not reflect radically new information about what happens when you enter a new job or company, it is full of intuitive truths about what one often forgets. After all, how many times have we repeated the experience of starting a new job, new company, joining a new team and yet how often do we learn from that experience to be more deliberate in our actions and change our behavior in a given situation to have a greater impact? Then before you know it, you've left the company, joined a new company and make the same initial mistakes you made previously. And then in hindsight, you say to yourself, "I wish I had done this differently" or that you had the power of hindsight. Well, with this book, you do. While the tactics in the book are targeted to an HR audience, the author shares a multitude of practical insights and tools to help you as a leader make decisions at those critical points, understand and analyze the political and organizational dynamics within your organization, and develop a plan for short term wins and long term impact within your organization. The executive handbook in the back of the book was particularly useful tool.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, March 15, 2002

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Assimilating New Leaders : The Key to Executive Retention (Hardcover)

Organizations spend vast amounts of time, money and energy to recruit and hire top executives. Then those same companies let these new valuable employees sink or swim totally on their own. A new receptionist is likely to receive more attention than a new division manager, as author Diane Downey explains. Despite its jargon-laden title, this enlightening book will change the way you think about hiring or being hired. We from getAbstract recommend this book to any manager who hires, who is being hired for a high-level job or who would like to be.