Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis »

The Author

Ram Charan is a world-renowned advisor to business leaders and corporate boards, a bestselling author, and an award-winning teacher. He is the author or coauthor of fourteen books including Know-How, What the CEO Wants You to Know, Boards that Deliver, and the New York Times best-seller Execution.

Praise for Leaders at All Levels

"Ram Charan's wisdom and experience come through in the profound insights that underlie this simple approach to building a better leadership pool. Any company concerned about its bench strength should follow this original and practical approach to developing leaders."

—Chad Holliday, chairman and CEO, DuPont

"Trusted by the cream of corporate leadership worldwide, Ram Charan uniquely blends the human reality of ultimately having to choose less-than-perfect leaders (a challenge all boards face) with a practical approach, for identifying and nurturing exceptional leaders."—Bob Lane, chairman and CEO, Deere & Company

"Leaders at All Levels is a practical and no-nonsense approach to building the talent pool which will differentiate your organization, now and in the future. Ram has distilled his decades of work with top CEOs and organizations, so the reader doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. It's all about the people."

—John Koster, M.D., president and CEO, Providence Health

"Ram Charan has mentored more leaders than anyone in the last two decades. Leaders at All Levels allows each of us to be his apprentice and to learn from him how to lead and to build leadership. The book is a marvelous mix of insight, experience, and wisdom. It will shape leadership succession for years to come." —Dave Ulrich, professor, University of Michigan Business School and coauthor of Why the Bottom Line ISN'T

"The one single thing that will make or break a company's growth and success today, tomorrow, and the day after that is the quality of leaders it can produce and keep. Ram Charan is without a doubt the go-to person on this subject. This is a must-read."—Bill Conaty, former senior vice president of human resources, General Electric

Rebuilding Succession and Leadership Development from the Ground Up     1
A New Way to Fund the Leadership Talent Deficit     5
How Apprenticeship Turns Potential into Leaders     25
How to Recognize Leadership Potential     41
Customizing Leaders' Growth Paths     61
The Crucial Role of Bosses     79
Managing Apprenticeship Systematically     105
Choosing the CEO Who Is Most Likely to Be Successful     117
Adopting the Apprenticeship Model     143
Epilogue: What Can a Leader Do?     153
Building Blocks of the Apprenticeship Model     159
Acknowledgments     163
About Ram Charan     165
Index     167