Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses alike share a business need - insuring that they have the talent necessary to effectively lead their organizations in the future. One of the most significant contributions a leader can make is insuring his/her business’ continuity and sustainability - by having employees who are willing and capable of filling each key position with a plan for doing so when the need arises.  

Succession Planning is a:

• Deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed in the future.
• A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s current talent pool and meeting its future needs.

Not having a Succession Plan can be costly and sometimes disastrous; it’s expensive to recruit, interview, select, on-board and train a new leader and significant opportunity costs are incurred when a key job is not being performed.

The primary objectives for and deliverables from a Succession Planning program are to:

• Sustain the business through a deliberate and systematic effort to anticipate and ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Retain and develop the organization's high potentials [HiPos]
• Encourage individual development by:

               - Identifying career paths

               - Conducting formal performance appraisals

               -  Providing daily coaching

                - Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

During Succession Planning Programs:

At the macro level the organization is proactively determining:

• The talent needed in the future
• The talent it has now
• Where there are talent gaps
• The initiatives necessary to close those gaps

At the micro level the organization is addressing - for each of its key positions - questions such as:

• What the organization would do if it had to fill the position tomorrow.
• Whether there is, at least, one successor who could immediately perform the duties of the position.
• If there is no successor ready now, what will need to be done to enable the best internal candidate to be ready and when can he/she be ready.
• Can the organization afford to wait or would it be better to recruit a successor, etc.

Experience has found the following two processes to be very effective in enabling organizations to have the talent they need, when it’s needed:

• Evaluate its employees’ current performance – based on documented, objective performance and achievements
• Assess its employees’ advancement potential
• Determine its employees’ current readiness for advancement
• Obtain from its employees self appraisals identifying their developmental needs and preferred career plans
• Meet its bench strength needs by initiating Individual Development Plans and experiences - at least, for its A Players and/or High Potentials - such as:

• • Special or stretch projects.
  • Assignments in other depts./job rotations.
  • ‘Try-out/popcorn stand’ slots.
  • Mentors.
  • Formal training and development initiatives.
  • Fast track programs with exposure to other functions.
  • Intense coaching, etc.
• Track their A Players’ and High Potentials’ performance and advancement potential against a Performance-Potential Grid.

Talent Review Meetings – during which the executive team in a disciplined fashion:

• Asks each leader to report on the status of the Individual Development Plans for each of their A Players and High Potentials.
• Insure that each A Player and High Potential is receiving regular coaching and is actively involved in opportunities that will help retain them while accelerating their development.
• Drives the organization past ‘business as usual’ by insuring that its future needs for human capital are identified and will be satisfied when the time arrives – as it will.

Succession Planning initiatives also increase the levels of engagement and performance of your A Players and High Potentials – the talent your organization will most need in the future.