Got Succession Planning Phobia? You’ve Got Problems
February 11th, 2010 by Lois Melbourne
It is amazing to me how many businesses McKinsey & Company find that have not built succession plans, even for their CEO. That’s nearly half in the study. Considering that 100% of us die at some point in time, and 100% of us eventually leave our jobs in one way or another, it’s unbelievable anyone would consider not building a succession plan immediately for their CEO and key employees throughout the organization. What are they scared of that could possibly be worse than a gap in their leadership?
Any business that does not have succession plans for the replacement of key employees is ignoring a serious element of their risk mitigation planning. A gap in the leadership presents so many risks. Least of them is the possibility that key strategies will go astray when there’s no leadership plan to assure business continuity.
We often find the scary part preventing businesses from performing proper talent reviews and building the model for succession plans is they’re afraid that the process of building the successor map also requires them to dive into dozens of other processes they don’t know how to do. Now, with easy tools like Aquire’s OrgPublisher Succession, you can dispel those fears. OrgPublisher Succession is direct and user friendly, providing side-by-side comparisons of potential successors, as well as powerful searching and filters that can align people into the 9 box comparison most commonly used for potential and performance analysis. You CAN get managers to participate in the succession planning of key employees if you help them keep it simple.
The Talent Strategy Group and its book One Page Talent Management also help businesses realize they can create succession plans and simplify the process. Businesses must build their replacement plan strategy and map their talent. When successors are built and chosen from within, employees realize there is a career path possibility for them. When shareholders understand that the business is planning for the movement of talent and has built the path for successors, they are more confident in investing in the organization. Without these plans in place your business is at risk of faltering in so many places.
My Mom used to tell us, “you can’t start any younger, so start today.” She was a wise woman.
Cheers,
Lois
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This is a great post if only the company that I work for truly believed what you are saying here then they would take the necessary steps to implement a plan for identifying talent within the company to line them up with people in key positions. We have seen steep declines in profit because there has been so much talent lost, yet they spend so much time trying to reorganize that it is hard to get traction. I know this is a great experience for me to see just exactly how I won’t run my company when the day arrives that I step out of this place and into my dream. Thanks for the post it really sparked something inside of me.