Are You Planning for Technology and Financial Executive Succession?
by Lois Melbourne
The information provided in this recent article, Plan For CIO Succession, in this week’s issue of Processor® , is very valid for many positions.
As is so often demonstrated, the talents of the executives must be a blend of many competencies. Identify the skills you want to see in your organization’s leadership and then track them for each possible candidate, better yet, for all employees. Ideally, executives must be able to balance their strengths at:
- leadership
- coaching/teamwork
- functional experience
- cross-functional awareness
- innovation
- strategy
- global understanding
- customer focus
A great technician does not necessarily make a great CIO. As the article points out, there is often more strategy involved in the job than technical work. However, in my experience, in order to build strategy about technology, practical experience with technology is also needed. A CIO with little or no “in the trenches” technology experience will find it much harder to do their job and nearly impossible to gain a following as a leader of technology resources.
So how do you get a CIO (or a head of sales, or marketing, or finance)? The simple answer: You must mentor and develop them.
The concept is the same for all positions, the execution of the development may vary. After you identify possible executive candidates, they need to be involved in strategic discussions and decisions, as well as budgeting and relations with other business units as a portion of their jobs. To develop a cohesive succession plan, you must analyze and groom many people then test their abilities to assist in many capacities of the business at hand. This is how you will know who is ready to succeed a leader.
Cheers,
Lois
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