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 CompanyOne 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 IndustriesThe 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 SentinelThe 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 CompanyGrow 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 SchoolThis 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 ServicesToday'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 BrookThis 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 CompanyGrow 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 NetworksMany 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 GroupI 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.
