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Succession: Are You Ready? (Memo to the Ceo)

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Succession: Are You Ready? (Memo to the Ceo)

(60 customer reviews)

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PRSS9781422118238

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A leader's greatest challenge can be knowing when it's time to step aside. A great deal has been written for corporate boards on the issue of succession planning. But most executives have few resources to help guide them through the process. How do you start preparing yourself--and your successor--for your inevitable leadership transition?

In this concise book, leading executive coach and bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith offers candid advice on succession from the outgoing executive's perspective. From choosing and grooming a successor while sidestepping political minefields, to finally handing over responsibility, Goldsmith walks you through each step in the succession process.

Done right, your successor can enter to applause while you gracefully bow out and start the next chapter of your life.

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Product Details

Author:	Marshall Goldsmith
Hardcover:	125 pages
Publisher:	Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date:	February 10, 2009
Language:	English
ISBN:	1422118231
Product Length:	7.2 inches
Product Width:	4.6 inches
Product Height:	0.8 inches
Product Weight:	0.44 pounds
Package Length:	7.3 inches
Package Width:	4.8 inches
Package Height:	0.7 inches
Package Weight:	0.45 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 60 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.5

( 60 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

The Art of Passing the Baton Feb 14, 2009 By Pele Ugboajah "Pele Raymond Ugboajah, PhD - LeaderPractice"
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is very clear that this book is less about the dry, logical, technical, or strategic issues of CEO succession and more about how to navigate the behavioral and emotional realities involved in successfully changing the guard at the top job. His central question for the CEO or top leader in any organization is: Are YOU ready?

To help you answer that question, he focuses like a laser on what may easily be the most challenging aspect of the process: the HUMAN side of leadership succession. While readily admitting that there are several books that can deal with the other technical issues, he forges ahead with powerful metaphors and stories that reveal the extreme importance of correctly handling the BEHAVIORAL challenges in leadership succession. How do you get yourself emotionally ready for moving on? How do you identify the right leaders to pass the baton to? How do you coach those leaders, and provide them with the best and most empowering tools for changing behavior? Ultimately, how do you "pass the baton?"

All these questions and more are handled in a way that reveals the unique insight Dr. Goldsmith possesses regarding the leadership challenges at the very top ... this time, not from the point of view of trying to BECOME the leader, but from the point of view of trying to replace yourself if YOU are the current, successful leader.

I love the analogy of Spock (the logical vulcan), which he uses to represent what this book is NOT about. (Dry, logical, statistical analysis). Perhaps even more, I love the analogy of PASSING THE BATON, which paints a truly powerful picture of what Succession is all about. Just as the lead runner has to carefully slow down without stopping, the second runner must also speed up and stretch out a hand to successfully receive the baton. It is this subtle dance - this carefully orchestrated coaching process - that Dr. Goldsmith uses as a central metaphor to kick off his book.

Like other previous books from Dr. Goldsmith, this is clearly a masterpiece. But beware, for this book will ask you to look deep within yourself with strong introspection if you are the CEO or Leader at the top. For succession is as much about YOUR behavior and emotions, as it is about those whom you hope to groom for the future!

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

An Good Introduction to Succession as a Topic Nov 02, 2009 By Jody
Preparing for a successor can be a difficult step in an executive career, Succession: Are You Ready? (Memo to the CEO) addresses many thought provoking concepts when preparing your replacement.

Although the book provides a good concise summary of concepts and emotions you may experience while preparing for succession, if you are looking for a detailed plan this is not the right book for you.

Goldsmith does do an excellent job in providing a direction for those executives that are entertaining the idea of succession and may even be discussing it with a board. Primarily focused on large corporate environments and fortune 500 companies, the advise may still be good for entrepreneurs and other business people that may be emotionally attached to their jobs.

A good book for a quick flight.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Helpful for anyone retiring and not just CEO's... Aug 17, 2009 By Judy Smith "judylynnsbooks"
The author tells CEO's how to retire with grace and dignity in this book (versus going out kicking and screaming, I guess). He gives a lot of suggestions on how they can do it and leave someone in charge that the CEO has trained himself. This will reflect on you if you do it. It's to your benefit to leave a good impression as well as leaving someone in charge that has been well trained. It shows what a good sport you are as well as how professional you are (and if you have stock in the company, it is an even better idea!)

When a CEO retires they have a hard time rejoining the human race and will find it impossible to just sit around and watch tv or play golf. The author suggests possible alternatives like getting in a group of other ceo's and discussing what else is possible. He tells of how some get other jobs, some donate their time running non-profit organizations, etc. They just have to find something they really like and head in that direction.

He gives a lot of good ideas and I thought the book would be good for anyone that retires from a high powered job and not just ceo's. The author writes with a sense of humor so it's certainly not dull.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

A Book For Personal Growth Jun 14, 2009 By Jeffrey Peter A. Hauck "Guerrilla Reader"
Review of Marshall Goldsmith's "Succession: Are You Ready?"

Goldsmith's book is written in the form of a series of memos to the CEO of a major company, and delves into the human side of the executive succession process. Dr. Goldsmith builds upon his 31 years of experience as an executive advisor to the world's leading corporations and shares "real world" examples of the challenges and opportunities in top management transition. While the book is written as letters to a fictional CEO, the learnings apply to leaders at all levels - who are faced with the prospect of either letting go or developing their successor.

I selected this book to focus on the aspect of personal re-invention, re-creation, and re-direction for the professional in terms of moving on with personal development and career planning. It is no secret that there are times and circumstances when a CEO can successfully transfer positions of supervision and/or management where both CEO and company are the true beneficiaries of the succession. This book should be regarded as a personal tool for growth beyond the role. Well done.

JP

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Leaders Listen to Marshall Goldsmith With Good Reason Feb 11, 2009 By William Jawitz "SuccessTrack ESQ"
More than just about anyone on the planet, Marshall Goldsmith understands how both intra- and inter-personal dynamics influence the leaders who are facing this culminating rite of passage, and how they impact the organizations which have to live with the results.

To the delight of his readers, Goldsmith is as gifted with words as he is with insight. (Unlike so many business management authors, his clarity and simple eloquence resonates with authenticity and allows him to be heard by high-powered leaders who are skeptical of jargon and pseudoscience.)

As an executive coach who works with the founders of their own successful law firms, I give Goldsmith's previous book (What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful) to all of my attorney clients, and it never ceases to amaze me how well they respond to his guidance about what behaviors they have to change in order to become more effective as the leader of their firm (and as the spouse, parent, and friend they want to be for their loved ones). These are tough cookies, used to getting their way and "being right" and exercising power in their day-to-day lives. But they get it and they deeply appreciate Goldsmith's approach. I'm certain those who are facing the question of succession will respond to this new book in the same way.

Whether you're a CEO, a founder, a managing partner (or an executive coach working with someone who is) Succession: Are You Ready? will give you a tremendously helpful four-phase framework for how to manage the process effectively.

This is part of the Memo to the CEO series by the Harvard Business Press, and it is one mighty valuable memo.

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