Hothouse vs. Pipeline

Historically, there have been two distinct pathways for leadership succession. The first is known as the hothouse or fast-track approach. It focuses on ‘high potential’ individuals and provides them with intensive development activities (e.g., intensive training experiences, stretch work assignments, individual mentoring and/or coaching, and selective access to senior management networking opportunities).

An alternative approach to succession is the pipeline approach. This approach focuses on building a broader “culture of leadership” within the workforce as a whole, with the expectation that high-potential leaders will naturally emerge over time. This approach emphasizes a broad-based approach of organizational leadership succession, and provides a number of significant benefits for the organization’s overall talent pool.

The products and services of leadersforlife are capable of supporting both pipeline and hothouse approaches, or a blended model.

The leadersforlife strategy (and associated products and services) is represented by DIAD.

• D    Diagnose the capacity of an organization to support effective leadership development.
• I    Identify high-potential leadership candidates (and those who aspire to be leaders)
• A    Assess the skills, talents, experiences and capacities of leadership candidates
• D    Develop each individual with a customized and targeted leadership program

Click below for more information about each of the components of the process.