Gear-up! : Shift Development of Your Leaders in High Gear

This book explains the mechanics underneath development of leaders and how you can influence this in your company. It makes use of the breath of materials on leader and adult development to come up with one integrated model for practical use.

As no model fits all situations, it is built in such a way that you can configure it to fit the uniqueness of your company. The book provides numerous insights into industrial applications, as well as three detailed business cases on how major players in their respective industry have set up their Leader Development system, and what we can learn from them.

It uses various perspectives on the topic, learning from historical, and modern day examples as well as considering the future.

This provides you with a book that gives you a solid understanding to base your informed decisions on. It provides three different models; the Human Capital Roadmap, linking the major Human Capital Management processes, the HEART model, a graphical display of the major Leader Development processes, and an in-depth audit tool, allowing you to assess your Leadership Development processes in more detail, and finding your areas for improvement.

These tools combined with the generated understanding enables you obtain the needed handles to get a solid grip on your own Leader Development situation.

This multi-facetted book serves a varied audience, from students, to experienced HR professionals, business leaders and CEO’s, all interested in the major field of interest to businesses today; how to create the next generation leaders for their company.

Some external reviews of the book (2017):

Kirkus review:    A scrupulously researched and expertly organized leadership development manual. The overall content may greatly benefit senior executives and HR directors.

Clarion review:   This book will be of major significance to senior managers who want to apply sophisticated thinking. Van Dongen’s exhaustively researched book is a valuable addition to leadership literature.

Blue ink review: If you like a highly-refined, in-depth plan, this is a rock-solid resource. (..) It lays out meticulous and valuable strategies for recruitment, hiring, performance and talent development and includes specific models. 

MARK VAN DONGEN is an international HR leader, with a passion for people and leadership Development. His background in the Military Academy, followed by an Army career, he then moved into international business. He has been working as HR head for multinational companies in both regional and global HR roles, Based out of Western Europe and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia), he obtained degrees in industrial psychology (MSc) and Managements sciences (PhD), next to his work. This combination of work and continuous development enables him to combine deep understanding and practical knowledge into pragmatic applications. 

Mark van Dongen is an international HR leader, with a passion for people and leadership development. This passion was aroused in his early career days, when he joined the Army as an officer Cadet at the Dutch Royal military Academy. Then still more experiencing leadership instead of understanding it, he grew to be one of the youngest Majors in the Army, specialized in leadership, and accountable for the policies and implementation of leadership practices in the Army, across the ranks. He helped define the to-date still valid perspective of the Dutch army on leadership.

These early days seem far away. In the meantime he has been working for multinational companies of varied nationalities, in regional and global HR roles, both out of Western Europe and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia).. He continued developing himself and pursuit his degrees in industrial psychology (MSc) and Managements sciences (PhD), next to his work. This continuous combination between theory and practice enabled him to continuously link his deep understanding to to practice, without becoming too theoretical. He currently works for ArcelorMittal, the worlds ‘largest steel company, as an HR leader.

In this book, he draws out parallels, while remaining connected to the question, why this matters to you as a reader. He reviews examples between industries and various disciplines in order to create an integrated approach on developing future leaders for your company. This approach will guide you to assess and improve your own process to develop leaders.