What is Succession Planning? Your Steps to Success
Brad Smith • February 4, 2020
Effective succession planning has advantages for your staff members, by giving them a self-esteem boost and an answer to the question of what’s next for them. For manager and employers, it’s a proactive measure that gives them an alignment of talent development with the company’s future leadership needs.
What is succession planning?
It is a strategy for identifying and developing future leaders at your company at all levels. Succession plans are used to address the inevitable changes that occur when employees resign, retire, are fired, get sick, or die. They make sure the business is prepared for all contingencies by identifying and training high-potential workers for advancement into key roles.
This is an often-overlooked process for companies, and something they all need to continue to run smoothly. It’s also a manageable event, not a major organizational crisis.
1. Be proactive with succession planning
It may take some time to find the right person to fill the leadership role. If you don’t think you’ll need a replacement soon, prepping someone to assume an important role creates an invaluable safety net.
2. Keep an open mind
The obvious successor may be in the second command, don’t disregard other promising employee. Look for people who best display the skills necessary to thrive in higher positions, regardless of their current title.
3. Make the vision known
When you have strategy conversations, include potential managers to help them acquire planning and leadership skills. They will also need to have a broad vision of the organization and its objectives. Consider sharing your succession planning with human resources and your board of directors.
4. Offer regular feedback to proteges
When someone seems to have great presentation, skills make note of it. Keep track of achievements so you have something to reference the next time a management position opens. Diligently chronicling topics like strong work and achievement will also come in handy during performance reviews.
5. Provide training to peak performers
As you start to notice the top performers, offer mentoring relationships, job shadowing and training, which are true of value to help them develop new skills and refine existing ones. Good leaders need technical and strong interpersonal skills, including standout verbal and written communication abilities, as well as tact and diplomacy.
6. Do a trial run of your succession plan
A vacation is a great time to have a potential successor step in to assume some responsibilities. The employee will gain experience while you learn how prepared the person is to take on a bigger role.
7. Use your plan to develop a hiring strategy
Once you’ve identified internal employees as successors for key roles in your organization, take note of any talent gaps. In this way, the succession planning process can help you identify where to focus your recruiting efforts.
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