University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Assimilating New Leaders
Book

Assimilating New Leaders

The Key to Executive Retention

Diane Downey, Tom March and Adena Berkman
AMACOM, 2001
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Organizations spend vast amounts of time, money and energy to recruit and hire top executives. Then those same companies let these new valuable employees sink or swim totally on their own. A new receptionist is likely to receive more attention than a new division manager, as author Diane Downey explains. Despite its jargon-laden title, this enlightening book will change the way you think about hiring or being hired. getAbstract.com recommends this book to any manager who hires, who is being hired for a high-level job or who would like to be.

Summary

We’re Glad You’re Here... You’re on Your Own

Companies expend huge amounts of energy on hiring the right people, but in spite of their best efforts, organizations often fail to keep new executives for more than a couple of years. In fact, only half of new hires stay in their hard-won positions for more than two years. That’s because organizations fail to assimilate new leaders, a four-step process that can take two to three years. Assimilation starts when someone is hired and ends only when the new manager is no longer an outsider but a full contributor.

The assimilation process has four steps: anticipating and planning; entering and exploring; building, and contributing. Both the individual and the company benefit from a successful assimilation, in which they use each other’s strengths to attain mutually beneficial goals. A savvy company knows that a successful assimilation gets the best out of new hires, as soon as possible, without distracting other employees. Assimilation focuses on new leaders, executives on the level of running a company or a division. These new leaders might have come from outside the organization, or they might be transferred within the same...

About the Authors

Diane Downey is president of Downey Associates International Firm, consultants whose clients include many Fortune 100 firms. She has taught at Cornell and other universities. Tom March is a consultant who has taught at New York University. Adena Berkman is a consultant at Downey Associates International.

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