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Generally, successful and sustainable leadership development programs
within an organization require identifying those who have the potential for
increased leader responsibility. This includes both those individuals who

are highly visible as well as those less obvious. It also involves assessing
who among these leaders may resist collaborative efforts, how strongly,
and why. Finally, it includes developing working relationships with these
individuals to facilitate their development. 294 Max De Pree, author of
Leadership Is an Art, declared that succession is one of the key responsibilities of
leadership. 295

Building leadership capacity in the organization should begin with
attracting and recruiting people that have leadership potential. This is not
a simple accomplishment. Obviously, the hiring of staff is the
responsibility of the top leader in the organization, which is the President
or CEO. Furthermore, the Board or other key stakeholders have the

responsibility of recruiting other Board members or stakeholders who have
the desired leadership qualities. A major factor in the success of getting the
people on board that are wanted is as much about the abilities of those
individuals as the qualities of the top leadership doing the seeking. It is
not likely that the “wanted” people will “want” to be associated with
leaders that don’t have their same qualities. From a leadership standpoint,

“who you are is who you attract.” 296

On the other hand, an effective top leader will work at recruiting people
who bring diversity to the workplace. Too much commonality among the
staff and members of the organization can lead to a loss of innovative

thinking and failure to uncover new approaches to old problems.
However, those people being recruited should still be in sync with the
organization’s vision and believe in where the leadership wants to take
them.

294 Elwood F.Holton, and Naquin, Sharon S., editors. Developing High-Performance Leadership
Competency. (San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Communications, 2000), p. 229.
295 Max De Pree, Leadership Is an Art, Max De Pree Center for Leadership, 1987.
296 John C. Maxwell. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007. p. 104.

David Kolzow 275