The Leadership e-News
October 2009   

This Month's Features

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FMI's Executive Coaching

Just as the best athletes have coaches, strong leaders often have coaches as well. In tough times, the need for coaching is even greater. Our FMI coaches bring more than 100 years of combined coaching experience, coupled with specialized industry knowledge, that can help you through these turbulent times.

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What FMI Executive Coaching clients are saying:

• "When you have the ability to make change and improvement to someone who affects your business, affects the growth of team members and affects your image – can you afford not to complete something like this? My answer is no!"

• "I already have made a greater contribution to this company as a result of coaching – both from a performance and a supervisory standpoint. In working with my group of a dozen people, they have their subordinates as well; I think it’s important how the impact transcends my group."



The "Practical Tools for Exceptional Leaders" booklet series is designed to help you learn and apply best-of-class leadership principles in your life and within your organization.
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A Letter From Ron Magnus, Managing Director

Our collective history remembers great empire builders well. Worthy of standing among the storied names of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun and the Roman emperor Trajan is Alexander the Great. When Alexander the Great was still a young man, he conquered the known world from Europe to Asia. However, when Alexander fell ill at the age of 33, there was no clear successor to his kingdom. After his death, his empire slowly deteriorated as his marshals battled among themselves for power.

Even today we see parallels between the story of Alexander the Great and modern leaders such as Ken Lewis of Bank of America. During Lewis' 40-year career, Bank of America grew to be the largest bank by assets in the world. This made Lewis' recent announcement that he would step down as president and CEO with no clear successor even more shocking. With no clear favorite to succeed Lewis, the resulting succession chase will surely have its fair share of corporate drama.

One of the fundamental tenets of great leaders is creating a culture of leadership that outlasts any one individual. This issue of The Leadership e-News examines succession planning and how to identify the right leadership competencies of future leaders.

Ron Magnus
Ron Magnus

Changing of the Guard: How to Avoid a Leadership Shortfall

The face of leaders in many architectural and engineering firms is changing, and identifying the next generation of leaders is a significant issue for current design firm leadership.

The future of the A/E industry and the firms that design our built environment is dubious. The United States and our global society have clear needs, but doubt exists about who will lead the transitions facing the firms and the industry. Increasingly, transitions in the way projects are delivered, in the roles played by design professionals, in the manner in which new professionals are recruited and retained all demand increasingly skilled leadership at a time when the industry’s leadership talent pool is decreasing.

Read on to learn how the future of these professions is at risk.

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Critical Attributes for Leaders of the 21st Century

In the current climate of uncertainty, ambiguity, globalization, information overload and rapidly changing social, political and economic environments, the job of a leader is becoming more complex. Leaders have to be able to adapt quickly to change, to collaborate across many different groups of people and to command the respect and dedication of those who follow.

FMI’s leadership and organizational development group has sought for more than a decade to prepare leaders to rise to these challenges. Through extensive research involving interviews with leaders, current leadership theories and analysis of existing models of leadership, FMI has developed the Peak Leader Model.

Read on to learn how the model addresses the essential principles of effective leadership that are timeless and apply across cultural boundaries.

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