What is the most important thing any leader needs to know to address the succession planning issue in his or her team or organization?
Since the key to competitive advantage is talent, what every leader needs to know is that succession planning is their responsibility and is something that needs to occur before key people depart – not after!
Identifying internal or external people as potential replacements for key personnel makes sense as does having a deep understanding of the critical skills, abilities, and knowledge required to successfully fill key positions.
Talking with other leaders in the organization and sharing ideas and information about key personnel and potential openings as well as potential replacements is also important. Then, when openings occur – as they inevitably will — knowing who’s available and who’s prepared to “step-in” speeds the replacement process and insures continuity of service.
Next, know what resources you can and cannot afford to train and support internal staff, or otherwise use to help new additions to your team quickly get “on-board.” Having this information allows a leader to allocate resources in a timely and prudent way.
Want to build bench strength? Here’s an approach.
- Have a well-defined overall objective in mind. For example:
- To build bench strength so that key leadership positions can be quickly and successfully filled from within, and to do it in ways that ensure continuity of services.
- Prepare – Create an appropriate infrastructure and foundation.
- Assign someone to oversee the effort and be responsible for it. Identify current and future leadership needs, key leadership roles (positions), and the technical, functional, behavioral, and leadership skills and requirements associated with each key role. Identify high-potential talent – individuals who will be considered to be part of the “target” or high-potential talent pool.
- Assess – Determine the development needs of high-potentials.
- Interview each high-potential to discover/document the person’s interests, capabilities, and opportunities for growth and development. Compare what you find to what’s needed in order to identify “capability gaps.” Create a “development roadmap” for each high-potential employee and conduct follow-up reviews and assessments.
- Act – Prepare high potential for future opportunities and build bench strength.
- Ensure that each high potential participates in all development activities including coaching and mentoring efforts, strategic and tactical assignments, job rotations, special project, etc., and that appropriate positive and constructive feedback and support is provided before, during, and after each experience. Be sure to also document performance and continuing development needs and provide appropriate recognition and rewards for those who demonstrate progress.
- Evaluate – Determine progress towards building desired bench strength. Look at metrics such as:
- Internal hire rates (IHRs) for key positions. While 100% may be viewed as “optimal,” it is not always possible or desirable. However, IHRs for individuals in this program should exceed comparable rates for people outside of it.
- Attrition rates (ARs) of people in key positions. Programs designed to build bench strength should also be designed to keep people in these mission-critical positions once they are assigned to them. Therefore, ARs for individuals in this program should be lower than comparable rates for people outside of it.
- Readiness of people in line for key positions — i.e. # level 1 (ready now), # level 2 (ready in one year), # level 3 (ready with two to three years. Organizations should always know what stage of readiness people are in. This will help the organization to know how people are progressing, what additional development they may need, and which positions may be “at risk” — ones that may not be filled by internal candidates.
Succession planning does not require a complete plan to replace everyone in your team or organization for every role at any time. However, smart leaders do have a good grasp of key roles and the skills and abilities needed to fill them, along with a current and accurate picture of what the company needs in terms of new talent. A failure to plan for the inevitable departure of key personnel is both irresponsible and unnecessary! Don’t let it happen to you!
Practice Ideas:
Ideas you can use to start and/or manage a useful succession planning approach
- Using a list of all roles within your team—or your key team—rank order their importance to your work and more broadly the organizations’ work. Then, consider the top 5 roles—-but no more. Make sure you have either a current job description or even better a concise list of technical skills/or education, knowledge, and what types of people skills are essential in these roles. Get together with another leader in your organization that would be in a similar role as yourself and discuss and compare notes. Your goal would be to have a clear idea of key needs for the top roles if/when an opening should occur. Consider too if there are others on the team that might be able to “step up” and what doing that would require in terms of resources and/or support.
- Consider writing an “ad”—really a made up “ad” — that would list all the critical things needed for your top — most critical — roles. If this ad were real, would it be possible to get someone with that profile? Ask human resources or a fellow leader to give you some concrete feedback on your “ad”. Begin to think about how other leaders in your organization—or HR might be able to help you identify possible replacements.
- Consider using information gathered in exercises like 1 and 2 to begin to develop a “succession file” with people, ideas and resources that would help you crystalize quickly and accurately what you would need if one of your key players leaves the organization. It would also give you ideas for people that may be able to take the role—partially or fully. In addition, it would provide updated insight into hiring/replacement HR policies in your organization, or, prepare you to accept that you will be on your own when the time comes to replace talent. Succession planning is not a priority—until it is. Then it is often too late and difficult to take the needed time to get the sound information you need. Begin small and allocate 30 to 60 minutes a week to keep your file/planning up to date.