Meeting the Life Cycle Needs of a Successful Leader

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There are four distinct stages to the life cycle of a successful leader in an organization.
• Stage I-Getting Acquainted: From first contact to a potential employee, until the employee actually begins working at the company.
• Stage II- Upboarding: The initial period of “orienting” a leader and setting the stage so that the leader can utilize the specific skills that form the basis upon which she/ he was hired.
• Stage III- High Performance: The period when the leader understands the culture, the ‘rules’, etc. adds his/her own skill to the culture and performs well.
• Stage IV- Preparing for Next Steps: This period begins when the leader is considering ‘moving on’ to a different role- be it moving up, out, or emotionally pulling out.

Human resource departments have long been in the business of onboarding new staff and providing training and support for staff. This paper suggests a different model. It is based upon audits conducted by the author’s company, OptimaHR, where organizations are given recommendations as to how they can successfully assist individuals in all four stages of the work experience, not just the first two. We have found that it is important that there be a careful plan for all stages and, particularly the first stage. The quality of the information, impressions, messages, and style that individuals experience from their first contact with an employer until they are on the payroll correlates highly with each individual’s success. The goal is for Stage III- High Performance, to be the longest and most impactful stage. In order for this to happen, stages one and two need to be carefully planned and administered and the organization needs to be ready for a stage four plan as well. This presentation and paper will demonstrate best practices for each stage.

Stream: Educational Leadership and Management

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr. Shriberg, Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Xavier University, spent twenty years as a Vice President and/or Dean in four urban universities. Currently, he teaches courses in Leadership, Management Skills, Diversity, Interpersonal Skills, and Management Theory (courses he helped develop) to undergraduate and graduate students. He has won several teaching awards. As a management consultant he has consulted with and facilitated training programs concerning leadership, diversity, management skills and group communication skills in more than 150 corporate, governmental, healthcare, not-for-profit, and educational settings. He has significant experience coaching CEOs, boards of directors and other senior corporate leaders of various sized companies in interpersonal skills development, cultural transformations, and planning and navigating organizational change. He also served, for several years, as a Management Consultant for Pope and Associates, a nationally known consulting firm. He has just completed the third edition of his textbook, Practicing Leadership: Principles and Application (Wiley and Sons, Inc., N.Y., 2005) is a multi-discipline textbook used in colleges and universities throughout the world. He has served as second author on Project Leadership (Management Concepts, Washington). He and Carol Lloyd wrote a weekly syndicated column entitled A World of Difference that appeared in newspapers throughout the country. He has numerous other publications. Dr. Shriberg is a well-known motivational speaker and humorist. He has keynoted over 300 meetings and conferences. His degrees are from Columbia University (Ed.D.), Boston University (M.A.), Xavier University (Executive M.B.A.) and Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (B.A.).