Leaving On Top

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David HeenanLeaving On Top: Graceful Exits for Leaders
by David Heenan

About the Reference

Leaving On Top by David Heenan examines the exits of large corporate C-level executives; identifying the several actions common to graceful departures. David shares ten lessons from successful transitions including:

  1. Know thyself
  2. Know thy situation
  3. Take risks
  4. Keep good company
  5. Check your ego at the door
  6. Keep learning
  7. Stage your exit
  8. Know when to walk away
  9. Know when to stay put
  10. Start now!

Why You Should Not Buy This Book

Leaving On Top is a niche book focused on large corporation CEOs and celebrities. David makes no effort to translate his departure lessons to fit small company or below CEO-level executives. Furthermore, Leaving On Top is largely a series of stories and does not get to its departure recommendations until Chapter 12. While these are worth considering, David should have presented his ten points up front and dedicated a chapter to each lesson; providing the reader with specific, actionable insights.

Leaving On Top is too niche in its focus and too shallow in its content for most readers. If you are a large corporate CEO, we suggest you read only Chapter 12, an executive summary, or, better yet, call some of your successful peers.

Recommended Resource – The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management

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The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management: Powerful Tools for Leveraging a Changing Workforce
by David DeLong and Steve Trautman

About the Reference

The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management: Powerful Tools for Leveraging a Changing Workforce by David DeLong and Steve Trautman provides a complete talent management program blueprint covering:

  • Diagnosis of talent related organizational risks
  • Evaluation and measurement of talent management initiatives
  • Acceleration of leadership development
  • Transference of individual and organizational knowledge

This blueprint provides the details needed to institute each of these programs and achieve real, measurable results.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management because the blueprint provided is implementable, actionable, and based on many of the practices endorsed by StrategyDriven. These practices focus on continuous programmatic assessment and performance measurement to drive superior results. If we had one criticism of the book it would be that the solutions presented appear too academic and unaltered by the realities of the business world.

The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management provides a thorough, implementable talent management program based on sound principles of accountability; making it a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – The Talent Masters: Why smart leaders put people before numbers

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The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers
by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan

About the Reference

The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan provides unprecedented insight to the people development programs of several legendary organizations including General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, and Novartis. Conaty and Charan illustrate in great detail the specific programs these organizations use to develop talent and plan for and execute on succession plans; including the behind-the-scenes consideration of organizational, cultural, and operational impacts such changes incur. They also share their experience-based insights on the critical personal traits and organizational supports needed for succeeding leaders to excel in their new positions.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like The Talent Masters because of its in-depth, behind-the-scenes insights to the talent management practices of globally recognized ‘leadership factories.’ Many case studies highlight the mechanics of these organizations’ programs but Conaty and Charan present the intimate executive discussions and thought processes on personnel development and succession that only insiders possess. This book captures the nuance of thought that makes these processes work so well at creating some of the world’s most sought after leaders.

The in-depth real-world business experience of leading companies presented in The Talent Masters makes this book on personnel development a StrategyDriven recommended read.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 52b – An Interview with Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus, part 2 of 2

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 52b – An Interview with Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus, part 2 of 2 explores methods for effectively capturing, retaining, and transferring the knowledge of departing workers thereby enabling those who remain to continue to use this hard-won information to the benefit of the organization. During our discussion, Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees, share with us their insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the characteristics of a good knowledge retention program
  • how to identify those individuals whose knowledge should be captured and retained
  • how to identify when someone is likely to retire, including the legal and ethical restrictions surrounding such activities
  • overcoming employees’ fear of personal value loss when sharing their hard-won knowledge
  • actions leaders should take to ensure captured knowledge reaches those who need it in a way and at a time that makes it useful to them
  • how a knowledge retention program’s return on investment and overall programmatic success can be measured

Additional Information

Ken and Gina’s book, Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010), can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Ken Ball is a Baby Boomer and has been tracking issues relating to aging in the workplace for several years. At TechProse, he drives business development for the consulting firm that specializes in knowledge/content management, training, and documentation for major U.S. clients. He has more than 30 years of experience in corporate sales and marketing, including years in book publishing business, working for IDG Books, publishers of the …For Dummies computer and general reference books. He has a marketing communications degree from Bradley University.

Gina Gotsill is a Gen X writer who has studied journalism at San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley. She is also a fellow of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Gina has covered a wide range of business topics that include keeping Boomer skills in the workplace, teaching finance to non-finance professionals, and growth and change in urban and suburban business clients.

For more information about Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill and Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010), please visit their website www.survivingtheboomerexodus.com.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:53 — 32.8MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 52a – An Interview with Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus, part 1 of 2

/in , , /by

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 52a – An Interview with Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus, part 1 of 2 explores methods for effectively capturing, retaining, and transferring the knowledge of departing workers thereby enabling those who remain to continue to use this hard-won information to the benefit of the organization. During our discussion, Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill, co-authors of Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees, share with us their insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the defining characteristics of Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials
  • why the retirement of Baby Boomers is of particular concern with respect to organizational knowledge retention and which industries are at the greatest risk of knowledge loss
  • the direct and ancillary benefits of knowledge retention programs

Additional Information

Ken and Gina’s book, Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010), can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Ken Ball is a Baby Boomer and has been tracking issues relating to aging in the workplace for several years. At TechProse, he drives business development for the consulting firm that specializes in knowledge/content management, training, and documentation for major U.S. clients. He has more than 30 years of experience in corporate sales and marketing, including years in book publishing business, working for IDG Books, publishers of the …For Dummies computer and general reference books. He has a marketing communications degree from Bradley University.

Gina Gotsill is a Gen X writer who has studied journalism at San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley. She is also a fellow of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Gina has covered a wide range of business topics that include keeping Boomer skills in the workplace, teaching finance to non-finance professionals, and growth and change in urban and suburban business clients.

For more information about Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill and Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus (Course Technology PTR, Cengage Learning 2010), please visit their website www.survivingtheboomerexodus.com.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:17 — 38.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS