Grow Your Own Leaders: How To Identify, Develop, And Retain Leadership Talent

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 workEffective 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 successionBreakthrough executive development techniques that reflect the realities of today's organizations* Delivering leaders fast, to meet tomorrow'schallenges--whatever they are When opportunity knocks, will you have leaders ready to take advantage of it?* From assessment to results: translating diagnosis into actionIndividualized executive development that delivers on the promise you've identified* 4 ways to turbocharge executive growth--and minimize HR bureaucracyHigh-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 andweaknesses 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. Ilove 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

A comprehensive, practical guide to developing talented leaders -- fast

-- Acceleration pools: the breakthrough technique for managing executive succession

-- Four powerful strategies for accelerating executive development.

-- By the author of the best-selling Zapp: The Lightning of Empowerment and Heroz, as well as top executives at DDI, one of the world's leading executive succession and HR consultancies.

In this book, the authors expose the profound leadership crisis that has, or will, impact virtually every enterprise. They introduce the acceleration pool: a system that looks within the organization to identify potential leaders, prepares them quickly, and deploys them rapidly. They cover every aspect of leadership development and succession planning, helping you understand the types of executives your organization will need, diagnose strengths and weaknesses, and respond quickly. They cover processes, roles, establishing accountability, metrics, and the role of the CEO in executive development. More than any other book, Grow Your Own Leaders reflects today's realities, offering techniques that will work no matter how fast your organization or marketplace evolves.