Succession Planning for 2023: It's Not Just for Emergencies - It's a Leadership Development Strategy

Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses alike share a business need – ensuring 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:

• The 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, onboard and train a new leader and significant opportunity costs are incurred when a key job is not being performed.

Session Highlights:

I. Succession plan

II. Objectives and benefits of succession planning

• Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Encourage HiPos development by:
  –  Identifying career paths
  –  Conducting performance appraisals
  – Providing daily coaching
  –  Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]
  –  Holding Talent Review meetings
• Attract, retain and develop high potentials [HiPos]
  

III. Tools and processes commonly utilized for developing and implementing

• Self-appraisals and career goals
• Performance appraisals, 360 feedback, and ratings
• Assessment instruments
• GE grid
• Individual development plans [IDPs]
• HiPo talent development interventions
• Talent review meetings
  

IV. What an organization, its leaders, and the program participants need to do to achieve an effective plan what an organization needs to do:

• Supply funding/budget
• Establish a clear vision and guidance for the program
• Develop a formal, written program
• Announce the objectives of the program to all employees
• Ensure that all leaders and managers support the program
  

What the leaders need to do:

• Have job descriptions developed for their teams
• Conduct effective, formal performance appraisals
• Identify employee developmental areas
• Share their knowledge and experience
• Involve employees in more of the leader’s responsibilities
• Facilitate the completion of IDPs for all Hi Pos
  

What the program participants need to do:

• Conduct self-appraisals
• Identify their desired career paths
• Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments
• Perform to their capabilities
• Complete their IDP
• Develop the employees reporting to them – so they have successors
  

V. Potential measures of the program’s success

• Whether there is, at least, one successor for each key position
• Having developmental goals and IDPs established for each successor
• Determining how much of their manager’s job the successors can perform
• Determining whether successors can perform their manager’s jobs when they are unavailable and evaluating their performance during those times

Why You Should Attend:

The primary objectives for and deliverables of a succession Planning program are to:

• Sustain the business through a deliberate and systematic effort to anticipate and ensure leadership continuity in key positions
  
• Encourage individual development by:
  

   – Identifying career paths
– Conducting formal performance appraisals
– Providing daily coaching
– Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

• Retain and develop the organization’s high potential [HiPos]
  

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:

1 Performance Management and/or 360 Feedback Processes – through which the organization is able to:

• 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 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
  

2 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 players and high potential
• Ensure that each 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 players and high potentials – the talent your organization will most need in the future.

Who Should Attend:

• HR Professionals new to the field – seeking a comprehensive view of the subject with multiple application initiatives
• Experienced HR Professionals – seeking a refresher
• Leaders and Managers – interested in understanding both how a Succession Plan benefits an organization and how to implement one