Leadership Development and Succession Planning

The construction industry is recognizing the need for leadership develop- ment 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 devel- opment and mentoring programs not available to their peers. Recent research at Clemson University by the authors compared the leadership behaviors of two groups of construc- tion 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 per- former status. This article provides justification for the "all-hands" approach to leader- ship development programs as a way of producing sufficient highly qualified professionals in the quest for succession planning in the construction industry.