We did not write this book as much as discover it. To a large degree, it is the product of all the transitions that have influenced all the people who have ever influenced us. Throughout our careers, we have learned by doing, by watching, and by interacting with a whole range of leaders—bosses, coaches, peers, subordinates, partners, and clients. We end every PrimeGenesis interaction with two questions: What was particularly valuable? How can we make it even more valuable? It is amazing what you can learn by asking.

What you have in your hands was born of continuing to ask those questions and the realization that onboarding is a crucible of leadership. Done poorly, it results in a lot of pain for a lot of people. Done well, the benefits are amazing, positively transforming leaders, organizations, and teams.

We would need a separate book to credit all the people who have had the most positive influence on us over the years. But we must acknowledge the contributions of our past and current partners at PrimeGenesis. Their fingerprints are all over this book as we all work these ideas every day.

In particular, we thank Jorge Pedraza, who was one of the founding partners of PrimeGenesis and one of the original coauthors of this book through its first, second, and third editions. Aside from being a brilliant thought leader and team leader, Jorge is easily the best author among us. So if you're reading a passage in this book that seems particularly well written, Jorge probably originally crafted it.

We are indebted to the clients of PrimeGenesis on several levels. We are the first to admit that we have learned more from them than they have from us. We give our clients complete confidentiality, so we have masked individuals' and companies' names in the stories involving any of our clients. We are blessed to have the opportunity to work with an extremely diverse group of clients. They run the gamut from the multinational to the small, from public company to private, from for-profit to not-for-profit. The executives we work with come from many industries, from almost every discipline imaginable, and from many parts of the world. With every client, we have learned something new. Clients inspire, challenge, and teach us on a daily basis, and for that we are grateful. You can learn more about our list of clients on our website at www.PrimeGenesis.com.

We also thank the readers around the world whose enthusiastic embrace of the ideas in this book has kept us motivated to keep it current. We have the good fortune of truly engaged readers who download tools and interact with us on a daily basis from around the globe. We thank you for buying the book, passing it on, and reaching out to us to share your ideas, praise, constructive criticism, successes, and truly insightful questions.

Abounding gratitude to George's editor at Forbes, Fred Allen, and our editor at John Wiley & Sons, Richard Narramore. Each of them has nurtured our ideas and gently pushed us to make them better across the years.

And, finally, to our families and loved ones. We deeply appreciate your unending encouragement and support along the way.