How to triumph at succession planning

• The optimistic assumption behind succession planning is that viable candidates exist within an organisation to fill its higher positions. What’s needed is a process for making it happen. It’s easy to lay out the steps involved.
• First one must identify the emerging leadership needs, given the environment in which the organisation will be operating in the coming years and the opportunities and challenges it will be facing — very different, perhaps, from past and present ones. Then comes the identification of those with the potential to assume greater responsibility in such a setting.
• Succession planning is intrinsic to talent management… which in turn must be aligned to overall organisational strategy. It’s obvious to state, but rarely do we find it to be so.
• The benefits of succession planning are equally obvious, and not just in smoothly filling the highest positions. The very mind set required to work on succession planning launches initiatives that will increase the availability of experienced and capable employees prepared to assume the higher roles as these become available.
• Succession comes round at a predetermined time and can be planned well in advance. No wonder that talent management, and within it succession management, is a prominent item on the agenda of any serious board.

Succession planning is one of those ‘‘good things to do’’ that no one in their right minds would argue with. Yet very few organisations actually do it.

When times are good people say they are too busy, and when they are not no one is in the mood and it would be too costly to organise anyway.

Little wonder that, with some notable exceptions, preparing for smooth handovers is largely restricted to the GEs and the Coca Colas and the Unilevers of this world.

As it is with quite a few other widely accepted tools of good management such as delegation and execution, performance appraisals and mentoring, all of which I have anguished about in this column.

And why wouldn’t people feel anxious about any of these? They’re all very delicate, and fraught with serious downside risks.

The optimistic assumption behind succession planning is that viable candidates exist within an organisation to fill its higher positions. What’s needed is a process for making it happen. It’s easy to lay out the steps involved.

Leadership needs

First one must identify the emerging leadership needs, given the environment in which the organisation will be operating in the coming years and the opportunities and challenges it will be facing — very different, perhaps, from past and present ones.

Then comes the identification of those with the potential to assume greater responsibility in such a setting.

If the organisation is entering a phase of growth or diversification, of restructuring or consolidation, are they suited for what is to come?

And either way, do they show signs of the motivation, the toughness and the ambition to take on the greater challenge? While each candidate will have their strengths, they will also most likely be lacking in certain areas.

So high fliers must be provided with enough tests, enough experience and exposure, that will develop them adequately by the time they are needed to take over.

It is the current top leadership — both board and management — that must drive the process, including through directly coaching their possible replacements.

Succession planning is intrinsic to talent management… which in turn must be aligned to overall organisational strategy. It’s obvious to state, but rarely do we find it to be so.

In larger organisations the HR function, the one that has day-to-day responsibility for talent management, must keep its caring eye on all concerned – those phasing out as much as those taking over, dispensing tough love as needed. In smaller ones the directors and line managers are as good as it gets.

The benefits of succession planning are equally obvious, and not just in smoothly filling the highest positions. The very mind set required to work on succession planning launches initiatives that will increase the availability of experienced and capable employees prepared to assume the higher roles as these become available.

And the very fact that internal promotion is the organisation’s intention and expectation will of itself improve employee commitment and retention, as the process increases the chances of meeting the career development expectations of existing employees.

Not to mention that you avoid all the challenges and risks associated with recruiting employees externally.

One sure sign of a healthy organisation, one that is confident about its future, is that it invests in building its people (its human capital, as we say these days) before it fully needs them.

Indeed the term “bench strength”, common in sports such as football, has now found its way into corporate spheres, to describe this stocking up on more people than are immediately required, so as to be available in a leadership “pipeline” – to use another piece of succession jargon.

So why then do so few, even the most successful, engage in succession planning? One reason is that in these days of flat pyramids, never mind in smaller organisations (not least family-owned ones), the opportunities for vertical upward promotion are likely to be very limited.

And what about those who were convinced they would climb higher (whether realistically or otherwise) but failed to be selected? How can one prevent them from becoming disgruntled and disruptive, or even from leaving?

Are there other ways of seeing them fulfil their ambitions, of continuing their learning and growth? Ah yes, the performance appraisal mechanism! That’s how we manage and align expectations… or rather, that’s how we should.

An equally sensitive issue is when succession needs to take place but the incumbent is determined to stay put, come hell or high water.

Serious board

Here it is the board that needs to be firm (unless it’s their chairperson we’re talking about — and that’s why term limits have been commonly introduced). These days it’s more usual, not least in the public sector, for CEOs to be on fixed term contracts.

So succession comes round at a predetermined time and can be planned well in advance. No wonder that talent management, and within it succession management, is a prominent item on the agenda of any serious board.

The most enlightened organisations heavily involve a CEO in the preparation of a successor as soon as they take office, and the success with which they carry out this key function constitutes a key element in their performance review.

Succession therefore becomes a normal aspect of life, not a rare and traumatic event. It arises not because of a problem or a crisis, but as part of healthy regular renewal.

As with so much else in high quality organisations, managing talent transitions without turmoil is a function of trust and respect. It also requires highly emotionally intelligent communications.

At all stages, judging the appropriate amount and timing of information sharing is key, both internally and externally – and not least in how the succession announcement itself is made.

So what am I saying? Don’t be more anxious than you should be in managing orderly succession. But to earn that right, ensure you devote the effort that is needed, when it is needed.

meldon@symphony.co.ke