Accelerating Leadership Development: Practical Solutions for Building Your Organization's Potential

From the Introduction

Organizations need to recognize that they are engaged every day in a war for talent. Leaders and HR professionals from rival companies both known and unknown are attempting to hang on to their high-potential employees and attract all that they can from others, including yours. "People who are very talented can always find opportunities," says Global Knowledge president and CEO Brian Branson. "So it is important to make sure that we as leaders in our organizations are not only trying to attract the right talent but making sure that we have the right opportunities and support infrastructure to retain that talent."

What I have found in two decades spent consulting with companies in North America and Europe on leadership development and succession management is there is a need for a book that lays out in a practical, step-by-step fashion all the tools, strategies and research that leaders and HR professionals need to accelerate leadership development within organizations.

That's what this book is all about: speeding up the process of leadership development. It's a multi-step approach in which organizations identify talent gaps, determine leadership requirements, select next-generation talent, train them, ensure their development and give them the tools they need to succeed.

The book is peppered with interviews of executives and academic thought leaders from North America and Europe who share their expertise and experience on the key themes of the book: finding and nurturing leadership talent, ensuring their future development and making the necessary changes to create first-class organizations.
--Jocelyn Bérard