For two years Grow Your Own Leaders has been an iterative work. During that time we called upon a number of people to lend their considerable talents to this book. Some worked on the project since its inception, while others stepped up as they were called upon. We want to recognize these people and their specific contributions here:

Helen Wylie—Majordomo, Linchpin—Helen has 12 boxes of drafts as a testament to the volume of work she put into this project. For two years she fielded, typed, edited, spliced, and coordinated the input of the three authors and incorporated their myriad (and often major and barely legible) revisions. She was dogged in her determination that we delivered what we promised when we promised it. She made sure we were aware of impending deadlines. Then, when the DDI editorial and graphic groups got involved, Helen faced—and met—an expanded challenge to coordinate activities. Over the course of this project, Helen cheerfully and tirelessly devoted a vast amount of time—including long days and frequent weekends—to getting the book completed. Without Helen, Grow Your Own Leaders couldn’t have been written.

Bill Proudfoot—Chief Editor—Bill was an integral part of the core team that held the entire project together. Bill put in countless hours editing, proofing, and polishing multiple iterations of the manuscript before managing it through formatting and proofing and then into printing while under some very tight deadlines. Thanks can’t begin to express our appreciation for the work that Bill did. Suffice to say that we couldn’t have produced this book without him either.

Janet Wiard—Graphic Designer—Another major player in the production of this book. Janet’s patience and dedication are unsurpassed. She spent many hours designing and then reworking layout and cover designs to give the original book its finished look. She also typeset the manuscript chapter by chapter, proving herself to be quite adept with the formatting software. Without Janet’s technical skills and eye for design, GYOL would still be a manuscript.

Claire Werling—Research Associate—Claire enthusiastically tackled the often nebulous—and frustrating—task of researching, identifying, and verifying the references in this book. She painstakingly matched each reference to its corresponding passage in the text. We applaud Claire’s dedication and commitment to making sure that all the references were correct and accurate. We appreciate her help more than she’ll ever know.

We offer special thanks to Shawn Garry, Peter Haapaniemi, Amy Plitt, and Chris Neuf for their editing and proofreading efforts and to Ginny Morgan and Tammy Watkins for inputting revisions and transcribing the authors’ dictation.

We also want to thank Dave Biber for his cover ideas; Paul Bernthal, Carla Fogle, Sue Huber, Jennifer Lukondi, and Angela Magliacane for their research assistance; Lisa Malley for her expertise with 360° surveys, John Buffington, Jr., Brian Hilker, Paul West, and the CSI Printing Team for the book production; and Suellen Fitzsimmons for her photography.

Many DDI associates volunteered to review iterations of the manuscript. Their feedback was instrumental to improving the content of Grow Your Own Leaders. They include Rick Anderson, Loren Appelbaum, David Black, Doug Bray, Tacy Byham Lehman, Bruce Court, Jac Cuney, Ron Dalesio, Dave Fisher, Andrew Gill, Susan Haid, Eric Hanson, Mike Hoban, Ann Howard, Bill Jackson, Margot Katz, Michael Lehman, Dana McDonald-Mann, Sheryl Riddle, Bob Rogers, Mary Jo Sonntag, Adrian Starkey, and Rick Swegan.

We would also like to thank our former DDI colleague, Rodney Warrenfeltz, and Suzan McDaniel, both of Hogan Assessment Systems, for their thought leadership, partnership, and willingness to share their latest ideas in executive assessment and development.

The following reviewers provided us with valuable input and feedback: Michael Coates, Cummins Business Services; Harvette Dixon, PPG; Eric Elder, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Mark Evans, Great American Knitting Mills; Alan Foss, PPG; Kenneth Hall, University of Pittsburgh; Tom Jeswald, PNC Bank; John Lankford, Comcast; Roderick Lincoln, Cytec; Manuel London, SUNY-Stony Brook; David MacDonald, Steelcase; Antigoni Mallen, AT&T Wireless; Amber McDougall, Australia Post; Steve McMillen, Hillenbrand Industries; Robert Parks, Eli Lily (retired); Tim Poshek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; E. Barry Richmond, Great American Knitting Mills; Edward Roth (retired) and Steve Leavey, U.S. Postal Service; Paul Russell, of PepsiCo; and Tim (and Danielle) Walker, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

We also thank the following individuals and their organizations for providing us with case studies and examples from their organizations: Harvette Dixon, PPG; Eric Elder, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Jamie Forst and Sharon Clay, Rolls-Royce, plc.; Diana Kamyk, Bayer USA; Steve Leavey and Sherry Barber, U.S. Postal Service; and Paul Russell and Lucien Alziari, PepsiCo.

We also want to thank our families for their support and patience as we worked on this project.

And last, but certainly not least, we thank Jack Horner Communications, Nancy Fox, and Rich Wellins for their PR, consulting, promotional, and marketing efforts of Grow Your Own Leaders.