Leadership development and succession planning

Abstract

The construction industry is recognizing the need for leadership development and succession planning. Industry has typically responded to this need by enacting succession planning programs that identify a handful of high-potential personnel at an early stage in their careers, and expose these candidates to specialized leadership development and mentoring programs not available to their peers. Recent research at Clemson University by the authors compared the leadership behaviors of two groups of construction project managers within a major international, U.S.-based construction company. The top performers were also the best leaders, as proven by a 360-degree leadership analysis. The analysis also identified specific causal influences for achieving top performer status. This article provides justification for the "all-hands" approach to leadership development programs as a way of producing sufficient highly qualified professionals in the quest for succession planning in the construction industry. © 2008 ASCE.