The Benchmarks Sourcebook: Three Decades of Related Research

The First Decade: 1983–1992

The majority of the summaries in this decade describe the research foundations of Benchmarks. Benchmarks is based on the results of two main areas of CCL research. These studies are most commonly referred to as the Key Events (or Lessons of Experience) and Executive Derailment research. The Key Events research program focuses on how executives learn and grow over their careers. The technical report Key Events in Executives’ Lives (Lindsey, Homes, & McCall, 1987) summarizes CCL’s first Lessons of Experience research project, which led to the development of Benchmarks. Executive Derailment research, on the other hand, compares and contrasts executives who are successful to those who derail, to determine the kind of development ...