Succession management should have as much attention as other planning activities within your business. As a follow on from assessment and leadership development, this addresses the needs to identify leadership potential early, accelerate personal growth and prepare leadership for critical roles or new opportunities. This mitigates the impact from sudden exits of key leaders or business changes. Succession management comprises;
- Understanding and defining the future needs of the business both individually and collectively to ensure a balance of skills and style
- Taking an inventory of internal potential leaders to assess readiness
- Identifying gaps and specifying the profiles of those that might be filled by external recruits
- Preparing a plan around differing parameters to ensure appropriate response in differing scenarios
- Communicating to the organisation and the individuals the intentions of the plan and their roles within it
Succession Management FAQs
Performance data e.g. appraisals can certainly be one important input yet this should be supplemented by assessment of future potential. Individuals may have strong track records but this does not mean they will continue to excel in roles presenting new challenges in a different environment.
We always plan for unforeseen changes when putting together a succession plan. We include various scenarios or ‘what ifs’ to ensure that clients have a back-up plan and are always ready to address unexpected circumstances.