Three Reasons Why Your Succession Planning Won’t Be Successful
Many organizations go through an annual or semi-annual process for succession planning. These organizations are diligent in identifying the future leaders for the organization and ensuring continuity as existing leaders transition to new roles or out of the organization. But going through the exercise of creating a succession plan does not ensure its success. In fact, if it is seen as an exercise, then it is certain that the succession plan will not achieve its intended purpose: guaranteeing that prepared employees are ready to fill leadership roles.
As much time and effort is spent on creating succession plans, isn’t the desire for the succession plans to be effective? What is holding many organizations back from have successful succession plans are three key elements.
1. Stale data. After the succession planning process is complete, the document or other materials are put on a shelf and not revisited until there is an opening or the next succession planning session in six to 12 months. While some organizations are able to leverage succession plans when vacancies arise, many create a mini-succession plan process in the moment to identify the potential candidates for the open role.
Solution: Take time each month to review the succession plan. This allows organizations to assess new talent, make modifications due to changes in the business, and check progress of those identified for future leadership roles. Too often, an organization will recruit a strategic hire without discussing with that person a clear development path to ensure he or she is ready for future leadership roles. In addition, business is constantly changing. By reviewing the succession plan regularly, organizations can address leadership for new priorities or short-term opportunities for development. Lastly, a monthly review of succession candidates allows the organization to ensure that these candidates are getting the right experiences. If someone is developing negotiation skills but hasn’t been in one negotiation, isn’t that better to find out after 30 days instead of 365 days?
2. Identifying successors for today’s positions. During the succession planning process, organizations use the existing organizational chart to build their successors. Sure, the CEO position is the CEO position. Certainly the role was very different ten or even five years ago than it is today. Maybe the company has grown or shrunk. Organizations make the mistake of looking at successors based on how the roles are defined today.
Solution: Make a multi-year succession plan. Although it is impossible to predict the future, it is important to think about the business strategy and growth plans and how future roles fit into those plans. When a talented person comes along, many organizations create a role designed for that person. That does not mean that the need for that position will be the same in the future. During the succession planning process it is important map out the roles needed for today (within the next year) and in the next three to five years. Recognizing plans to open a new office or expand a department are elements that today’s succession planning does not consider. This gives organizations the opportunity to better build successors who are prepared for those future roles knowing what changes are planned.
3. Not defining the experiences needed to be successful in the future role. Too often succession planning stops short. Organizations identify the successors and development needs. These development needs are typically generic and ambiguous at best.
Solution: Get specific on the types of experiences the successors needs. This is not about training. This is about with whom the successor needs to work, and what other assignments are required, and where and when should those assignments take place. Identifying the need to increase self-awareness may mean one thing to the leaders who identified it and another to the succession candidate. Being clear on how the person needs to increase self-awareness and what support the organization is going to give the individual will improve the outcome. Ultimately it will ensure a better prepared successor when the role becomes open.
With the amount of time organizations put into developing succession plans, shouldn’t they fulfill their purpose.
