Succession Planning for 2024: It's Not Just for Emergency - 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 ensuring 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 is 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.

Learning Objectives:-

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

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

• Encourage individual development by:

  • Identifying career paths

  • Conducting formal performance appraisals

  • Providing daily coaching

  • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

Areas Covered:-

• Succession Plan Defined

  • A deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed

  • A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s current talent pool, and meeting the organization’s future needs

• Objectives and  Benefits of Succession Planning

  • Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions

  • Attract, retain & develop high potentials [HiPos]

  • Encourage HiPos development by:

    • Identifying career paths

    • Conducting performance appraisals

    • Providing daily coaching

    • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

    • Holding Talent Review meetings

• 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

• 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 sharp 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:

    • Develop the employees reporting to them – so they have successors

    • Complete their IDPs

    • Perform to their capabilities

    • Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments

    • Identify their desired career paths

    • Conduct self-appraisals

• 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 Should You Attend:-

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 highly effective in enabling organizations to have the talent they need when it is needed:

• 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 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:

  • Ask each leader to report on the status of the Individual Development Plans for each of their A Players and High Potentials

  • Ensure 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 ensuring 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.

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