Book description
The book will be used in a variety of ways:
- To jump-start high-potential development training programs
- As part of an organization's training program in 'managers as coaches'
- To support self-study and self-directed development on the part of
high-potential leaders
- As an HR handout piece to help senior executives understand their
roles as HIPO mentors and sponsors
- To provide a useful approach to HIPO development for L&D, OD,
and HR leaders who have been tasked with initiating high-potential
leadership development programs
- To support executive coaching certificate programs sponsored by
universities and private consultants
- As a useful handout tool for executive coaches who are attempting
to bring their clients and clients' managers in alignment regarding
the intended goals, outcomes, and process involved in high-potential development.
Part 1
Chapter 1: Identify the Gap
The chapter explains how to use focus groups and assessment
interviews to identify such positions. It also explains how to use
scenario development to forecast future leadership requirements, and
to identify those future demands that are very different from the
current state.
Chapter 2: Build the Plan: This chapter suggests taking the
opposite approach, by first identifying the key demand features of
next-level assignments. Simply put, the development plan should be
able to spell out how a leader will be needed to grow and develop in
order to successfully meet next-level challenges. Examples would
include the ability to develop yearly sales and revenue forecasts,
negotiate multiproduct sales with key corporate clients, or secure
sponsorship for corporate initiatives.
Chapter 3: Identify Test Points and Hurdles: This chapter
explains how to pinpoint critical organizational events and
experiences that can provide a clear test of where a leader currently
is in the development process.
Chapter 4: Guiding Accelerated Development: This chapter
provides helps readers distinguish between “forward-focused coaching”,
or coaching for next-level assignments, and remedial and transitional
coaching. It offers guidelines for improving the effectiveness of
managerial coaching, third-party coaching, and peer coaching.
Chapter 5: Tracking & Evaluation: Many leadership
development efforts fail because they lack a formal process for
helping leaders track their progress against set development goals.
This final chapter spells out a simple approach for setting up such a
tracking system. It also explains how to leverage technology (Ft.
Hill's Friday5s system) to maintain momentum in coaching and to
assess the overall effectiveness of the coaching process.
Part 2
Chapters 6: Managing a Company of One: This chapter explains
why it is so important in the current business climate to take charge
of one's development as a leader. It spells out what companies are
looking for in identifying high-potential leaders, with emphasis on
the concept of learning agility.
Chapter 7: Spanning the Gap: This chapter outlines a simple
proves that leaders can use to solicit information from their managers
and senior leaders about changing job requirements, critical
development gaps, and how those gaps translate into leadership
competencies and experience.
Chapter 8: Building Your Plan: This chapter shows readers how
to take the lead in working with their managers to identify and
clearly define development goals. It also explains how leaders can
build their development plans around “naturally occurring events”
within the leader's work schedule, to ensure that development actions
are closely linked to business requirements.
Chapter 9: Identifying Test Points and Hurdles: This chapter
helps readers understand the steps they can take to work with their
managers identify test points and hurdles, and to build these factors
into their planning process.
Chapter 10: Accelerating Development: This chapter outlines a
number of guidelines that a leader can follow to reduce the time
required for development. It explains how to make the best use of
developmental feedback, and how to fully engage in, and leverage
managerial and third-party coaching.
Chapter 11: Gauging Progress: This final chapter suggest steps
that leaders can take to assess their own progress in development, and
to make mid-course corrections to their planning process.
Dr. Barner has had 25 years of experience in the
fields of leadership and professional development, including several
corporate executive positions. He currently holds the position of
Associate Director of Executive Education within the Southern
Methodist University's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education
& Human Development. He is also the owner of Plano Executive
Advisory Services, a management consultancy specializing in the areas
of executive coaching and leadership development (www. robert.
barner@planoadvisory. com)
Dr. Barner is a prolific writer
whose writing contributions include six books on the subjects of
career counseling and leadership development with translations into
German, Norwegian, and Estonian. He has also been a contributor to
several university texts, has written over 40 articles for academic
journals, and has been a reviewer for both the Journal of
Organizational Change Management and the Journal of
Management Development.
Dr. Barner has presented to several
international symposia and conferences, including the American Society
for Training and Development, The Society for Human Resource
Management, The World Future Society, and the National OD Network. His
articles on the subjects of career planning, executive coaching,
executive development, and team building have appeared in such
publications as The Wall Street Journal's National Business
Employment Weekly, The OD Practitioner, Career
Development International, Team Performance Management,
The Journal of Organizational Change Management, HR
Magazine, and Training & Development.
Dr Barner
holds a Masters and Doctorate in Organization Development from
Fielding Graduate University, a Masters in Counseling Psychology from
Nova Southeastern, and Bachelors degrees in Education and Psychology
from Florida Atlantic University.
He can be reached at robert.
barner@planoadvisory. com
