New book challenges CEOs to change leadership growth

New book challenges CEOs and Talent Management leaders to change the leadership growth equation to stop robbing energy and grow ready leaders.

Tuesday, July , 2016

Sydney—Businesses and economies around the world are in danger of faltering because of a serious absence of one thing—ready leaders. With businesses moving at breakneck speed, how can organisations ensure this critical need for their leaders to keep pace?

Leaders Ready Now, a new book out now by three leadership experts at Development Dimensions International (DDI), challenges CEOs and talent management leaders to rethink lackluster approaches to accelerating leadership growth and to change the equation so that tools and processes don’t rob energy from the organisation but instead, create it. The book is available at Amazon and www.ddiworld.com.

“The intense global need for leaders has sparked a proliferation of highly redundant ideas that fail to spark the energy essential for high-speed growth,” said co-author Matt Paese, Ph.D., vice president of DDI’s succession and C-Suite services. “In our experience with more than a thousand organisations, the leadership-acceleration efforts that fall short of their objectives are bound by a common description: They are aggressive in the pursuit of structure and application of tools, but anemic in the pursuit of energy.”

The leadership readiness gap is wide and growing. Consider these statistics—after adjusting for inflation, the 500th-ranked company in the Fortune 500 is nearly five times bigger in terms of revenue than it was in 1990. That means more leaders with much larger spans of control are crucial for success. Yet, only 2 in 10 companies have the leaders ready to meet tomorrow’s business challenges. Time and again, corporate executives are finding themselves delaying or withdrawing strategic priorities because they don’t have leaders ready to take them on.  And as organisations aim for those growth targets, DDI’s research shows that the right leaders can drive financial growth for their organisations and help mitigate potential risks.

“Australia is at a critical inflexion point”, said Mark Busine, Managing Director for DDI Australia.  “Our future economic and social prosperity will depend on our capacity to adjust to a life after mining.  Underpinning this is our ability to identify, prepare and select the leaders who can thrive in this new world”.

Leaders Ready Now helps organisations unlock this much-needed energy by empowering their leaders to thoughtfully and systematically take risks. The book provides practical guidelines to how organisations can use existing resources, people, budgets, and time to transform succession and development systems and grow the leaders they need fast and fully enough to gain the advantage in a complex world.

Advanced praise for Leaders Ready Now has been abundant:

"Finding and having enough high-potential leaders in your pipeline is critical for growth, but how do we accelerate their readiness to take on the really big roles? Paese, Smith and Byham show us that the secret to growing leader readiness lies not in the talent, but in the energy we infuse in our processes and the level of risk we’re willing to take on our people."
--Allan H. Church, Ph.D., Vice President, Global Talent Assessment and Development, PepsiCo, Inc.

"Finally, a book that recognises trying to cram more learning into already busy lives will not deliver the leaders you need. Nor does this book offer a panacea or silver bullet to the serious issue of ready now leaders for your business: So why read it?  Because it encouraged me to think differently, take some risks and find the point where the anxiety to perform creates the energy to learn!"
--Dr. John Mahoney-Phillips, Global Head of Learning at Philips Lighting

“Leaders Ready Now offers a practical prescription for dialing up your leadership capability and readiness velocity. Organisations interested in earning a winning position and staying ahead of their competition can’t afford to miss the pragmatic acceleration principles offered in Leaders Ready Now.”
--Laci Loew, Principle, Talent and Organisational Development

For more information about Leaders Ready Now, published by DDI Press, including a sample chapter, bonus content, author bios, book praise, and purchasing information, visit www.leadersreadynow.com.

Leaders Ready Now
By Matthew Paese, Audrey Smith, and William Byham
DDI Press
June 21, 2016
30.00, hardback; 352 pages,
ISBN 0976151472

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Available for interviews: 

Matt Paese, Ph.D. Vice President, Succession Management & C-Suite Services

Mark Busine, Managing Director, Australia

About Development Dimensions International

Founded in 1970, DDI is a global talent management consultancy that helps companies transform the way they hire, promote and develop their leaders and workforce. DDI’s expertise includes designing and implementing selection systems and identifying and developing frontline to executive leadership talent. Clients include half of the Fortune 500 and multinationals doing business across a vast array of industries from Berlin to Bangalore and everywhere in between. We serve clients from 42 DDI-owned or closely affiliated offices.

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