Review
"Grow Your Own Leaders is the greatest book on the subject of development of current and future leaders that I have ever read."John Lankford, Senior Director of Learning and Development, Comcast Cable Communications, Inc."Grow Your Own Leaders should become a required reading for all Human Resource professionals."Bob Parks, Director of Recruiting, Eli Lilly and Company"One of the greatest challenges facing organization in the 21st century is identifying, developing, and retaining our future leaders. We have seen traditional succession management systems fail repeatedly to deliver the required bench strength. Grow Your Own Leaders provides a timely and much needed new approach to succession management that resolves the issues with traditional succession management methods. Acceleration Pools provide the flexibility to identify our leadership talent, development and retain that talent, and create much needed leadership bench strength imperative for our future success."Sam Heltman, Senior Vice President, Administration, Toyota Manufacturing North America, Inc."Grow Your Own Leaders takes succession management and leadership development to the next level in a way that breaks new ground. It's well written and visionary, yet imminently practical. It's filled full of common sense wisdom that heretofore has not been common practice in organizations."Stephen W. McMillen, Ed.D. , Director, ELD & Performance Improvement, Hillenbrand Industries"The best part of this book is the direct candor on every page. Anyone interested in truly developing their own leaders and not just talking about it will benefit from the hard lessons learned by the authors and the directions they provide based on their experience."Allan Foss, Manager, Leadership Development, PPG Industries, Inc."Grow Your Own Leaders will assist corporations in guiding career paths and increase their retention of talented people. I intend to purchase copies for the entire executive team."Tim Poshek, Training and Development Manager, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"The timeliness and appeal of Grow Your Own Leaders resonates well. It addresses a critical aspect of organization process essential to meet challenges companies continue to face in dealing with the War for Talent."Tim Walker(& Danielle Walker), Director of The Center for Leadership Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company"Grow Your Own Leaders focuses on business results, integrating ideas from multiple disciplines - assessment centers, succession management, executive development - to create a system for identifying, developing, and maintaining talent. The examples provided in the text are those to which readers easily will relate and clear illustrations of typical succession management problems that are solved by Acceleration Centers in conjunction with other proposed tools and processes. In short, Grow Your Own Leaders should help those charged with succession management think in more productive ways and, as a result, help their organization build and maintain an abundance of bench strength."David R. MacDonald, Ph.D., Leader, Assessment Process , Steelcase, Inc."Grow Your Own Leaders has succeeded in making the case for Acceleration Pools as the method of choice for executive development, but Grow Your Own Leaders has also explained how to do it in detail. Everything from how to get started to how to perform each and every role in the process is included. Real-world examples add credibility and insight."Kenneth B. Hall, Senior Consultant, University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School"This book is a useful, easy-to-use, practical book that does NOT dwell on academic theory. I love your book because it is IMMEDIATELY USEFUL and will help me to influence leaders in my company in a concise and what's-in-it-for-them fashion."Antigoni Mallen, Succession Planning and Executive Development , AT&T Wireless Services"Today's organizations operate in highly competitive global markets challenged by rapidly advancing technology and uncertain economic conditions. Grow Your Own Leaders creates rich opportunities for leaders to learn and develop. Byham, Smith, and Paese show how to take advantage of these opportunities. They clearly demonstrate ways to identify a pool of high potential candidates in line with the company's leadership requirements. They emphasize that managers need to take responsibility for their own careers while top management and the human resource department provide the enabling resources."Manuel London, Ph.D., Associate Provost for Enrollment , Professor and Director Center for Human Resource Management , State University of New York at Stony Brook"This book describes an important, pioneering alternative to replacement planning methods that have historically been used in the area of succession management. The authors make a persuasive case that traditional replacement planning systems have lost their effectiveness in a changing, global workplace. The 'Acceleration Pool' concept is indeed a practical alternative to meet the needs of today's organizations. Practical advice, real-life examples, and easy-to-understand visuals are contained throughout this very readable work. Grow Your Own Leaders is an information bank, an encyclopedia, a reference book, and a step-by-step instruction manual that should always be kept within arm's reach for anyone involved in the development of high potential talent.I believe Grow Your Own Leaders represents the "best in class" on the topic of succession management, and will no doubt, become a new management classic. Bravo!"Stephen R. Miller, Corporate Training Manager, The Sherwin-Williams Company"Grow Your Own Leaders is a delightful gem! In an hour, I had read enough to know that this is the most practical and comprehensive approach to leadership development out there. It incorporates what I already know to be best practices, but now they're connected into a whole picture I can explain and use."Deborah M. Morris, Business Performance Consultant, Nortel Networks"Many books have been written on great leaders and leadership qualities, but Grow Your Own Leaders offers actionable advice on identifying and development leaders within your organization. At Vanguard, we employ the practices and programs detailed in this book to cultivate high potential talent for the good of our company and clients."Stephen J. Marshall, Principal, Corporate Division, The Vanguard Group"I have found that Grow Your Own Leaders confirms for our organization the initiatives we are seeking to put in place related to succession management. These initiatives are on target given the challenges we are facing as a major non-profit organization in identifying, developing, and retaining high potential talented staff."Otis A. Jackson, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, INROADS, Inc.
From the Back Cover
Acceleration pools: a new method of succession management.
Your organization's success is defined by one factor: the quality of your leaders. But developing great leaders has never been tougher. Now, drawing on experience with over 1,600 organizations, three renowned leadership consultants show exactly how to identify tomorrow's best leaders within your organization, accelerate their development and deployment, and maximize their value to your organization.
Comprehensive and practical, Grow Your Own Leaders covers every phase of executive development and succession, introducing high-impact, no-bureaucracy techniques that work. You'll discover how to align executive development with corporate strategy; how to take full advantage of short-term assignments, professional coaching, and other new approaches; and how to ensure accountability and measure results.
Yesterday's rigid, static executive succession programs have become a key obstacle to success. Grow Your Own Leaders introduces a flexible, high-speed approach designed for tomorrow's companies in tomorrow's marketplace-and shows you exactly how to implement it, from start to finish.
* The crisis of executive leadership—and why conventional solutions don't work Effective leadership has never been more crucial-or in shorter supply * Best practices for identifying "high potentials" in your own organization Why you should focus internally—and how to identify outstanding leaders who aren't "bubbling to the top" * "Acceleration Pools": bringing new flexibility to executive succession Breakthrough executive development techniques that reflect the realities of today's organizations * Delivering leaders fast, to meet tomorrow's challenges—whatever they are When opportunity knocks, will you have leaders ready to take advantage of it? * From assessment to results: translating diagnosis into action Individualized executive development that delivers on the promise you've identified * 4 ways to turbocharge executive growth—and minimize HR bureaucracy High-impact solutions that require fewer forms, and fewer meetings!
Turbocharge executive development in your organization!
- Identify tomorrow's best leaders—within your own organization
- Develop potential leaders more quickly and effectively than ever before
- Gain leadership flexibility for addressing any new business challenge—immediately
- Align your executive development programs to support your strategic objectives
- Transform yesterday's executive succession systems to support today's flat, fast-changing organizations
Today, virtually every enterprise faces a profound leadership crisis-and the speed of business has far outstripped yesterday's succession planning systems. In Grow Your Own Leaders, three world-renowned experts introduce an entirely new approach for identifying tomorrow's leaders within your own organization. Using DDI's breakthrough Acceleration Pool techniques, you'll groom new leaders faster than ever—and discover how to deploy them immediately, to address new challenges wherever they emerge.
Drawing on their experience developing executive succession programs for companies ranging from GM to Steelcase, the authors cover every aspect of leadership development and succession planning. You'll learn how to identify what kind of executives your organization will need, then diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of your "high potential" candidates, and master four powerful strategies for accelerating executive development.
From roles and processes to metrics and accountability, Grow Your Own Leaders is the only guide to enterprise leadership that reflects today's business realities. No matter how fast your organization or marketplace evolves, this book will help you identify, develop, and retain the executive talent you need to win.
"Grow Your Own Leaders is the greatest book on the subject of development of current and future leaders that I have ever read."John Lankford
Senior Director of Learning and Development
Comcast Cable Communications, Inc."Grow Your Own Leaders should become a required reading for all Human Resource professionals."Bob Parks
Director of Recruiting
Eli Lilly and Company"Grow Your Own Leaders provides a timely and much needed new approach to succession management that resolves the issues with traditional succession management methods. Acceleration Pools provides the flexibility to identify our leadership talent, development and retain that talent, and create much needed leadership bench strength imperative for our future success."Sam Heltman
Senior Vice President
Administration
Toyota Manufacturing North America, Inc."The timeliness and appeal of Grow Your Own Leaders resonates well. It addresses a critical aspect of organization process essential to meet challenges companies continue to face in dealing with the War for Talent."Tim Walker (& Danielle Walker)
Director of The Center for Leadership Development
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company"This book is a useful, easy-to-use, practical book that does NOT dwell on academic theory. I love your book because it is IMMEDIATELY USEFUL and will help me to influence leaders in my company in a concise and what's-in-it-for-them fashion."Antigoni Mallen
Succession Planning and Executive Development
AT&T Wireless Services"I believe Grow Your Own Leaders represents the 'best in class' on the topic of succession management, and will no doubt become a new management classic. Bravo!"Stephen R. Miller
Corporate Training Manager
The Sherwin-Williams Company"Grow Your Own Leaders is a delightful gem! In an hour, I had read enough to know that this is the most practical and comprehensive approach to leadership development out there. It incorporates what I already know to be best practices, but now they're connected into a whole picture I can explain and use."Deborah M. Morris
Business Performance Consultant
Nortel Networks"Many books have been written on great leaders and leadership qualities, but Grow Your Own Leaders offers actionable advice on identifying and developing leaders within your organization. At Vanguard, we employ the practices and programs detailed in this book to cultivate high potential talent for the good of our company and clients."Stephen J. Marshall
Principal
Corporate Division
The Vanguard Group
