Every Leader Needs a Succession Plan

Domain: Strategy - Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Do you have a general idea of who you want leading your organization when you've moved on or retired?

If the answer is no, you're taking a reactive approach.

We tend to think primarily of CEO's and large organizations when we think about succession planning, but the truth is all leaders in organizations of all sizes should be thinking about and owning their own succession plans. Great organizations have various plans, at different stages of progression, for all key positions. Yours should be no different.

The companies who struggle with long-term leadership strength tend to be the ones to put off succession planning until they are forced to fill a role. That's not really succession planning at all. That's just hiring for open positions.

A common view is that succession planning is a multi-year process. I disagree with that framing as it suggests there is an end to it. Succession planning should be a constant, ongoing process. It doesn’t even end when your successor fills the role as they then have to begin the process of thinking about their eventual successor. This doesn't mean you're working on this every single day. It just means that if asked, you have a plan and could speak to how it's progressing.

There are so many parts to effective succession planning that I'll cover through an ongoing series. The focus of today's newsletter is to help highlight the benefits of proactive, ongoing succession planning.

Top talent

Standard hiring gives you access to the top available talent at that specific moment in time. As a result, your candidate pool is made-up mostly of professionals who are actively looking for new roles in that moment. This is a really narrow approach that requires some luck of timing to find the right individual.

Succession planning expands that timeframe. This opens the door to leaders who might not have otherwise been available or actively looking when the role in question become open. By making this an ongoing process, you've created a much more thorough recruiting mechanism.

Vetted Talent

Think about succession planning as a long and thorough audition process. Instead of relying simply on the recruiting process, you have the chance to develop multiple people that you believe could be ideal for the role.

This approach allows you to vet multiple people simultaneously. While only one will end-up getting the role in question, the other top candidates will go on to fill key roles as part of other succession plans in the organization.

What you've now created is a matrixed system of developing and placing top talent into key positions.

When you hire reactively, you forfeit these opportunities.

Resiliency

This proactive approach makes your organization more resilient in the face of unforeseen turnover at key leadership positions.

Inevitably, you are going to have leaders leave their positions unexpectedly. Perhaps due to illness, season of life changes or opportunities elsewhere. Your competitor may already be tapping your leaders for their own succession plans.

Whatever the reason, a succession plan ensures that you are not caught completely off guard. While a sudden vacancy may be a surprise, you have a plan and system in place to address it. Sure, your timetables might be accelerated, but you're still much better-off than you would have been without a plan in progress.

Current capacity

A lot of the benefits we've covered are future oriented. They are benefits that will be realized one day; however, when that will come remains unclear.

But by attracting and developing top talent, you actually improve the current capacity for your team or organization to execute at a high level. Your intentionality around succession planning increases the number of professionals who can take on more complex and challenging assignments. This allows your team to be more proactive and innovative in addressing current challenges.

Some leaders will push back on succession planning stating they don't have the time. But in this way, succession planning builds current capacity while also making you stronger for the future. You're leveraging current challenges and stretch assignments to build tomorrow's leaders. This is a beautiful and perpetual cycle.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement. If you have feedback, suggestions or questions, please reply to this email.

If you are interested in exploring one-on-one coaching to transform your leadership, email me at [email protected] and we’ll coordinate a free, one-hour discovery session.

This week’s action items:

Take some time to gauge the strength of your current succession plan. Identify your biggest opportunity…

1. Does it allow you to recruit potential leaders regardless of when the position becomes available?

2. Does it allow you to develop high-potential leaders for the position?

3. Do you have a pipeline in place in the event that you had an unexpected vacancy tomorrow?

4. Do you have your talent pipeline currently helping to tackle larger and more complex problems?