Iowa group spots talent, teaches leadership: As company grows, so does its pool of potential managers

摘要

In the fall of 2013, Pat McGrath's dealership group had experienced rapid growth, in part by acquiring more stores. But growing so quickly, "we probably put some people into leadership positions before they were quite ready," McGrath said. For that reason, McGrath, who owns McGrath Family of Dealerships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, asked his executive team to develop a program to identify talented non-management employees and teach them leadership skills, all the while assessing whether those employees could move into management roles some day. The Emerging Leaders Program was born. It was launched in August 2014. Twenty employees graduated from the 10-month class in May. Of those, 11 have risen to management jobs since.