Growing Your Company’s Leaders

How Great Organizations Use Succession Management to Sustain Competitive Advantage
by Robert Fulmer and Jay Conger (07700)

Due to the fact it is now common place for executives to change from one organization to another during their careers, succession management has moved from the background into headline status. What was once an issue of interest only to the human resources department is now a potential source of competitive advantage for organizations large and small. Quite simply whoever can win the war for executive talent stands the best chance of prospering in the future.

The seven key elements of a robust succession management system are:

Corporate Strategy
Sponsors and Owners
Talent Identification
Development Linkages
Assessors
Tracking System
Success Metrics

Growing Your Company’s Leaders

How to Influence Using Giving to Receive

(16419) Dave Lakhani says:

Look for little things you can give away as part of your persuasive efforts. The more unique the gift is, the more memorable it becomes and the greater the chances are it will be appreciated. Generic gifts are fine but collectible items — baseballs or color photos signed by celebrities for example — are even better. Quite simply when you give someone something memorable, they feel somewhat obligated to give you something in return, when is often their agreement to your proposal.

One of the tried and true ideas is to give people a free sample of your product or service. Or you might make a concession in a negotiation. Both of these gifts are good because the recipient won’t fall foul of any corporate guidelines forbidding them from accepting gifts of any kind.