Bench Strength: Developing the Depth and Versatility of Your Organization's Leadership Talent

Leadership development is one of the most critical needs of any organization. With Baby Boomers starting to retire, where will new leaders come from? How does a company make sure it has the "bench strength" to have the right leaders at the right time? This book offers a powerful and original approach to the challenge, covering strategic factors often overlooked in other books. These include how to:

* choose between growing talent from within and hiring outside people * create and execute talent strategies to maximize organizational effectiveness * hire a Chief Talent Officer, a position increasingly found at forward-looking companies * use "war-game" scenarios to test strategies and correct bad decisions quickly

Bench Strength offers specific, step-by-step guidelines for developing every aspect of a winning strategy. Most important, it provides the action steps for making smart, realistic choices, and putting a talented and versatile team together--for today and for the future.

"This book provides all the right stuff if you're ready to get down to the hard work of strategic talent management. Take advantage of well thought out questions, challenges, and guidelines for designing and executing with confidence. Barner does a superb job." -- Janet S. Steinwedel, Ph.D., Director Leadership Coaching, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

"Follow this comprehensive, practical roadmap--complete with toolkit--to the land of an energized and high performance work environment." -- M. Cass Wheeler, CEO, American Heart Association

"This book serves as an insightful guide for both executives and development professionals. By presenting a balanced perspective of the different strategic approaches, it provides a thoughtful analysis of the options (and trade-offs) associated with implementing various leadership development initiatives. Organizations interested in attaining a competitive advantage through people (specifically a strong leadership team) will learn about the subtlety and creativity needed to do it right (one size does not fit all)." -- Christina D. Williams, Ph.D., Managing Director, RHR International

"P & L owners and HR practitioners alike will find this book easy to use and highly applicable to their joint cause of winning the sustained talent war. Barner's blend of cases, theory, models, and questions of self-discovery is a perfect balance." -- Samir Gupte, Vice President, Human Resources, Bahama Breeze

"Bob Barner presents a highly cogent and comprehensive guidebook for HR professionals, managers, and CEO's for building an effective talent strategy. Focusing on key talent decisions - 'Make versus Buy'/'Capstone versus Foundation'/'Build Out versus Trade-up' - this book brings clarity to the most vexing and perennial HR challenges, helping managers not only to understand the options they have but how to think through these choices and specifically when and how to respond. Distinctive throughout is the book's unwavering focus on business impact and alignment with business strategy." -- Jean Martin-Weinstein, Managing Director, Corporate Leadership Council

"Bench Strength is the only book on talent management I have read that is practical and actionable. Barner not only outlines a well-defined path for success, but also provides examples and experiences that bring the words and recommended actions to life. This book will be of immense value to any organization seeking to develop a talent management strategy that is aligned with and supports the business direction." -- Tracy South, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Mosaic Sales Solutions

"Robert Barner, Ph.D., is Vice President of Management Development for Belo Corp., a media company that encompasses newspapers, broadcast stations,

cable networks, and Internet services in major U.S. cities. He is also a professor within Southern Methodist University's Department of Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management. Dr. Barner has more than 20 years of experience in organizational and management development, and has worked on OD assignments throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia."