Essay: Developing Leaders

Objective: Examine and discuss concepts and theories in developing leaders.

Introduction: A sustainable and competitive business is one that emphasizes and values its employees. As such, a business must be able to grow and retain leaders and followers. This essay will give you the opportunity to apply concepts and theories in developing leaders.

Deliverables:

The essay for this lesson is required to be a minimum of 750 words that clearly demonstrate your understanding of the activity. Essays should have a clear introduction, thesis statement and conclusion, written in APA format (APAstyle.org). A minimum of three sources must be cited in-text and in the Reference list.

Activity Details:

Step 1: Read the following scenario and questions, then use what you have learned about this lesson's objective to summarize your responses.

The company you work for is going through changes. Five key employees (two are potential leaders from underrepresented groups) have decided to quit and go to the competition.

The management team is afraid more will follow if something isn't done quickly to retain the talent pool.

The president of your company isn't convinced that a succession plan would have prevented some of these employees from leaving. You have been asked to help influence the company president on the importance of building a strong succession program.

Step 2: Write a paper responding to the question/prompts below--remember you are tasked with influencing the company president of the importance of building a succession plan. It is highly recommended that you use these questions/prompts as level 1 subheadings in your essay.

-What does a succession plan do and who is the target audience?

- What competencies are needed in leaders for your organization and how do you proposed to develop those competencies in potential leaders?

-How would your company benefit from implementing succession management, especially for two of potential leaders from underrepresented groups that left?