Succession Searches

Domain: Strategy - Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The "first phase" of any succession cycle is the search. I use quotes there because all phases are continuous. Great organizations are never done with succession planning because they always have different candidates in different stages of the cycle. When your succession plan successfully fills a position it starts over to prepare for the next vacancy or opportunity.

Unfortunately, many leaders are not proactive with succession planning. They either assume it's someone else's problem or choose not to deal with it until someone leaves and they are forced to take reactive action. This creates unnecessary friction during leadership transition and often results in more frequent leadership turnover as the organization struggles to find the right fit for the position.

You can strengthen both your current and future leadership capabilities by being proactive. And that starts with the first phase…the search. Here are a few tips for starting that phase effectively…

Timelines

The first step in your succession search is determining your timeline. Ideally, you're not starting out with a hard transition date as that will put you in a more reactive mode. But things in leadership aren't always ideal and we need to acknowledge the situation, wherever you are.

If you have no immediate transition date, you have more time and flexibility to vet multiple candidates simultaneously. This ideal as it also puts you in a position to respond more quickly to unexpected or sudden leadership departures.

If you are working against a date, you'll need to compress and plan your timelines to account for that. The more time the better.

Think long-term

Professional sports teams often use the Best Player Available (BPA) strategy in the annual draft. The idea behind the strategy is that a team choose the best available player, regardless of the team's positional needs, as it promotes long-term roster depth and value over reactivity.

The same principles apply when determining your succession plan. When determining who is going to fill your spot once you've moved on, you should be doing so with a long-term vision. Thinking about what the organization is going to need in the future, not just what is available at this moment.

Consider future needs of the team or organization. Don't simply look for someone just like you. Long term success of the organization requires new and different perspectives to stay relevant. This is also why we look at external candidates.

Far and wide

Don't make the mistake of looking within just your immediate team or department for successors. You want to cast a wide net. This means looking elsewhere in your organization, your competitors organizations and even other industries. Leadership skills are highly transferrable and therefore are more agnostic of industry.

If you have time on your side, you can do this through networking, search committees and relationship building. If you're pressed for time, this may mean using an executive search service. You'll miss out on some talent this way but it's a great option if you don't have the luxury of time.

Diversify

A common mistake leaders make is thinking they already have the perfect successor in place and then putting all their eggs in that basket. And that makes sense. A lot of times you do have a really great successor already on your radar. And they may very well be the best person for the job.

Still, you should still be vetting other candidates for the role. If nothing else, simply to make sure that you're not operating with blind spots. If the person you've identified really is the best, than that will become even more clear once you've initially vetted others.

This is where ongoing, long-term, proactive succession planning is so valuable. You need time to do this thoroughly. This is not as burdensome as it sounds as you're only vetting multiple people at the beginning of the cycle. Eventually, you'll have narrowed it down to one or two for whom you can put more serious time and resources into developing.

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:

1. Identify your timeline and whether you have a deadline you're working against. This will influence how thorough you can be.

2. Consider the long-term needs of the organization and how they might evolve.

3. Be willing to look outside your team, division, company and even industry. Effective leadership is highly transferrable.

4. At the beginning, vet multiple candidates simultaneously.