Succession Planning is Business Continuity Insurance
You have insurance, right? You’ve got life insurance, health insurance, car insurance — maybe (hopefully!) business liability or E&O coverage.
So why wouldn't you “insure” the continuity of your company?
Planning for the future wellbeing and care of your business — through proactive succession planning — is a form of insurance, too. It protects not just your livelihood, but the people who depend on your company every day: your employees, clients, vendors, and partners.
Let’s play this out. What’s your plan if a key team member suddenly gives notice? Or gets sick? Or moves out of state for a spouse’s job? Or just burns out and walks away?
Do you have two or more individuals who could confidently step up — even temporarily — to fill that gap?
Or would the company be “dead in the water” while you scramble to rewrite the job description… because so much of what that person did was stored in their head like a vault?
If there’s no documentation, no cross-training, no designated second-in-command… you’re not just down a person. You’re down momentum. You’re down knowledge, relationships, trust, and time. AND if you have to hire someone from outside the company to fill the role, you’re down a lot of money too.
Succession planning helps you avoid that kind of scramble. It’s not just about preparing for retirement — although that’s important. It’s about building internal bench strength, identifying future leaders, and creating a safety net for your operations.
And no, it doesn’t have to be complicated or formal or time-consuming.
It can start with small steps:
Create accurate job descriptions ASAP
Start with the current job description and the incumbent in the role. Ask them to edit the description to “bring it up to date.” Ensure they add anything they are currently doing that is not in the description.
Then, ask them to take a second pass and estimate the amount of time they spend on each task per week or month (e.g. I usually spend 4 hours a day answering customer inquires via phone or email. Four hours per day, multiplied by five days per week, equals 20 hours or 50% of the work week. Now you know you are looking for someone with exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal; time management skills; and organizational skills.
If you really want to create an accurate job description, have someone observe the person doing the role for a day or two. They will undoubtedly identify tasks that are not on the job description because so many of us, when we are expert at something, don’t even see it as a task! The incumbent might describe their role as “answering customer account questions,” but the observer sees using a database, reading and interpreting past queries to get up to speed quickly, being able to think critcially in order to “triage” questions as urgent or routine, etc.
Next, ask the incumbent, “Who else could do this if needed?”
If the answer is no one, you need to assign a co-worker to cross-train with the incumbent.
Early in my career I had a key role in a small company – I was the only one who knew how to do it; even my boss had no idea what I did. About two or three months into the job, I asked if I might have the sales secretary work with me two afternoons a week so that I could train her to do my job.
Honestly, I wasn’t doing it for the good of the company, I was doing it for me. What if I got sick, or wanted to go on vacation? I was trapped! And what if I got hit by a bus (which, no lie, our receptionist did, although in her case it was a dump truck, and she was out of work for eight months!)? Was my trainee perfect at the job? No. But she could have kept the wheels turning.
It's important to invest in developing successors now (preferably multiple successors [look what happened at JP Morgan Chase earlier this year]), while things are calm.
Succession planning is part human resources strategy, part professional development, and part peace-of-mind generator.
Succession planning is the insurance policy you need, to ensure that if one person leaves, the whole company doesn’t go down.
Need help in this area? Give us a call … even if you just want free advice! We are happy to give it .
Succession Planning is a Change Management Initiative
Most organizations know they need succession planning.
Few approach it as a change initiative.
Instead, they focus on identifying future leaders and making promotion decisions. But succession planning is really about ensuring the entire organization transitions smoothly and embraces the shift—whether that’s a CEO stepping down, a new department leader taking over, or key employees moving into more strategic roles.
People, in general, resist uncertainty. And ignoring the human side of change is why so many succession plans fail. If your employees don’t understand the process (or even know that you have a process!) or feel like they are in the dark regarding when and why transitions happen, productivity drops, morale takes a hit, and suddenly, what should have been a seamless leadership handoff turns into an organizational crisis.
Why Proactive Change Management Makes Succession Planning Work
Change is inevitable. How you manage it determines whether it’s an opportunity or a disruption. In succession planning, proactively managing change ensures that employees at all levels feel informed, prepared, and engaged in the process. Here’s how:
Start Communicating Early and Often Organizations make a huge mistake when they keep succession planning discussions behind closed doors. A lack of transparency breeds fear, gossip, and uncertainty. If employees don’t understand the company’s plan for the future, they’ll assume the worst—sometimes even leaving because that gives them a sense of control over their own career. Clear, consistent communication about succession planning eliminates speculation and builds confidence in the process.
Create Development Pathways Before You Need Them One of the biggest challenges in leadership transitions is employees feeling like changes are happening to them rather than for the good of the organization. Instead of waiting until a leadership vacancy appears, organizations should establish career pathways that develop employees into future leaders. This way, when transitions occur, they aren’t a shock—they’re the natural next step. Career paths also ensure that anyone can be a leader because they’ve been “primed” to know what they need to do, and what the timeline is, to achieve a leadership role.
Involve Employees in the Process Change isn’t something you impose—it’s something you guide. Employees should be active participants in succession planning. This means mentorship programs, cross-training, and leadership development opportunities should be woven into the company culture. My favorite maxim is: Succession planning should be standard operating procedure.
Address Emotional Resistance Change is just as much emotional as it is operational. Employees may worry about job security, new leadership styles, or how a new direction will affect them personally. Organizations that proactively acknowledge these concerns and provide support—through coaching, town hall meetings, and feedback channels—make transitions smoother.
Real Life Story
Here is an example of a company that did everything wrong; don’t be like them.
The numbers correspond to the numbers/best practices, above.
1. I started working with them at the beginning of July of 2024. I had three meetings in the course of a month, and, from the get-go, I said, “You need to tell people who I am and why I'm here. There's nothing nefarious happening in this conference room, but if you don't tell them, they're going to become nervous and think worst-case scenario. Maybe I’m from the IRS and you’re in big trouble. Maybe I’m a business broker and you’re getting ready to sell the company. They don’t know. The client refused to tell their employees who I was or why we were behind closed doors for hours at a time.
2. The current company executives “hand-picked” three new C-suite executives BUT when I asked who would replace these three when they moved up, I got blank stares. They could have planned a career path progression to mid-level manager roles and then into senior roles, but they had no plan for how they would replace the middle managers. That meant no one in the company was prepared to move up into the vacancies.
A vacancy at the senior-leader level or a middle-manager level is still an opportunity for chaos and a single point of failure.
3. The hand-picked future CEO had no preparation for the CEO role, in fact, during one of our early meetings he stood up, forcefully put his hands on the conference table, and said “I don’t know what a CEO does!” He had been with the company 20+ years, but they had done nothing to teach him how the business itself ran.
4. Before our third meeting a very key person had left the company to do the same job he was doing for the client, but for the state. I don’t know why he left, for sure, because I never spoke to him, but I DO know that:
a. He too was a 20+ year employee and perhaps he felt the hand-picked future CEO was a snub to him
b. Perhaps he saw the behind-closed-doors meetings we were having and it made him nervous about his job security – and he wanted to proactively control his options.
Additionally, I DO know that the company’s senior leaders were shocked and wounded that he had left. A large part of company revenue came from the division that he ran.
Do any of these situations sound like something that is going on in your company?
If so, please see my contact information at the bottom of this article!
Succession Planning Done Right = Change Management Done Right
At its core, succession planning is an exercise in change management. The best-laid plans will fail if the people affected by leadership transitions aren’t engaged, informed, and prepared. Organizations that treat succession as a structured, transparent, and people-centered process will set themselves up for long-term success—turning inevitable change into a strategic advantage.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
The Difference Between ‘Good’ and ‘Purposeful’ Professional Development - and Why It Matters
First, a definition of professional development: the ongoing process of acquiring new skills and knowledge through education and training after entering the workforce, typically to advance your career.
Investing in professional development is a key strategy for any organization that wants to grow, innovate, and retain top talent. However, not all professional development is created equal. While good professional development can enhance an employee’s skills and knowledge in a general way, purposeful professional development takes a more strategic and individualized approach, ensuring that learning efforts directly benefit both the employee and the organization.
What is Good Professional Development?
At its core, good professional development refers to any training, learning opportunities, or skill-building initiatives offered to employees. This can include industry conferences, training courses, informational seminars, and certifications. The assumption is that by providing learning opportunities, employees will enhance their capabilities and in turn, contribute more effectively to the organization.
Most companies will offer a broad range of workshops on leadership, soft skills like communication, or technical skills like how to operate a forklift. While employees may gain valuable insights, the training doesn’t always align with their current role, future career path, or the company’s strategic objectives. While “good” professional development is certainly beneficial, it lacks intentionality and generally doesn’t maximize the return on investment for either the employer or the employee.
What is Purposeful Professional Development?
Purposeful professional development, on the other hand, is an intentional and strategic approach to employee growth. It goes beyond simply offering (what I like to call “random”) learning opportunities and instead focuses on identifying the best development opportunities for each individual based on their skills, potential, career aspirations, and the company’s plans for growth.
This type of professional development requires a deeper understanding of both the organization’s long-term goals and the employee’s strengths and ambitions. Instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach, purposeful development ensures that employees receive targeted learning experiences that will directly enhance their effectiveness and potential within the company.
For example, let’s say you have a financial analyst in your organization. Instead of enrolling them in additional finance courses, your purposeful professional development approach might provide targeted training in company operations or real estate purchase and development—skills that align with the company’s future plans and the employee’s potential leadership trajectory. Similarly, if a customer service representative demonstrates strong communication skills, rather than keeping them in a CSR role, a better, more purposeful approach might be to invest in sales training to help them transition into a revenue-generating role.
Why Purposeful Professional Development is More Effective
While good professional development has its place, purposeful professional development is ultimately more effective because it:
⭐ Aligns Employee Growth with Business Goals – When professional development is tailored to each employee’s role and potential, the organization benefits from more skilled, engaged, and strategically prepared talent.
⭐ Increases Employee Engagement and Retention – Employees who feel that their development is taken seriously and aligned with their career goals are more likely to stay with the company and contribute at a higher level.
⭐ Maximizes ROI on Training Investments – Rather than spending money on broad-based learning, companies that focus on purposeful development ensure that every dollar spent on training has a direct impact on business success.
⭐Creates Stronger Internal Pipelines for Promotion – Purposeful development helps organizations cultivate leaders from within, reducing the need to hire externally and ensuring smoother transitions in key roles while simultaneously preserving the company culture and maintaining its values.
Ultimately, while good professional development provides value, purposeful professional development delivers real impact—both for the individual and the organization. Employers who take the time to be strategic about employee growth will see better engagement, stronger teams, and a more competitive business.
Introducing an easy and affordable way to provide purposeful professional development: PeerEXCEL.
The Training Doctor is a pioneer in utilizing peer learning groups for leadership development, professional relationship building, and career advancement.
The content and pace are co-created with you, to meet your needs and budget.
We start new groups three times a year: May, September, and January. If you'd like to learn more about how peer learning groups can work for your organization give us a call [number below] or grab this brochure.
Succession Planning & Exit Planning Are NOT Synonyms
This week I had a conversation with a marketing / SEO expert who told me he had "lots of experience with other pros like you." At first I thought, that's amazing! Because there aren't many people/companies who do what we do. So to work with a person who "gets it" would be awesome.
But almost immediately I realized... he doesn't get it. He went on to speak about business valuation and aiming our advertising at company owners who want to increase their valuation in order to sell their business.
He - like many others - has confused succession planning with exit planning.
This is not unusual; last year Law.com asked me to write an article for their audience (lawyers!) explaining the difference between the two. So don't be embarrassed if you thought the words were synonyms - because your attorney probably doesn't know either.
But now - let's clear up the confusion...
If you own a business or lead a team, you’ve probably heard the terms succession planning and exit planning tossed around. They both sound like ways to prepare for the future, but they’re actually pretty different. Here's our definition: succession planning is about making sure your business keeps running smoothly with a strong pipeline of future leaders in place, while exit planning is about figuring out how to step away from your business in the smartest way possible (legally, financially, timing-wise, etc.)
Here's more:
Succession Planning
Succession planning is all about building a strong bench of future leaders within your company. The idea is to develop and prepare people so that when the time comes, they’re ready to take on bigger roles.
This usually involves:
Spotting employees who have the skills (or can develop them) to step into leadership roles.
Providing training, experiences, job rotations, mentorship, and other growth opportunities so they’re ready when the time comes.
Creating a system for performance reviews and promotions so leadership changes don’t feel like a scramble (or a dagger to the heart).
The benefit?
You don’t end up in a crisis when a key leader leaves. Plus, investing in your employees this way helps with retention—people are engaged and productive when they know they know they are working towards a future with you.
Exit Planning
Exit planning, on the other hand, is about preparing for the day you step away from your business—whether that’s selling it, passing it down, or even closing it. This process helps you maximize your business’s value and ensure everything transitions smoothly.
A solid exit plan includes:
Choosing your exit strategy—selling, passing it on to family, merging with another company, or something else.
Sorting out the financials—things like business valuation, tax planning, and structuring a deal that makes sense.
Handling the legal side of things—contracts, agreements, and making sure everything is buttoned up for a clean transition.
Without an exit plan, you could end up scrambling at the last minute, leaving money on the table, or dealing with a messy transition. And no one wants that.
How Are They Different?
Even though they’re both about planning for the future, they focus on totally different things.
Chart of differences between business succession planning and exit planning.
Do You Need Both?
Yep! If you’re a business owner, it’s smart to think about both. Even if you’re not planning to exit anytime soon, having a strong leadership pipeline keeps your company stable. And when the day does come to step away, you’ll want a solid plan to make sure everything goes smoothly—for you and the business.
At the end of the day, succession planning keeps your business thriving, while exit planning helps you leave on the best terms possible. They can be done in tandem or individually. Having both in place is just good business.
Ten Truths About Succession Planning
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, succession planning has become more critical than ever. As organizations face the challenges of an aging workforce and increasing competition for talent, understanding the fundamental truths about succession planning can make the difference between sustainable success and organizational crisis.
Truth #1: You're Already Behind Schedule
With "Peak Boomer" approaching in 2030, when the last of the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age, organizations face an unprecedented leadership transition. A 2024 Vistage survey revealed that 25% of CEOs plan to retire or sell their companies within the next five years. Creating an effective succession plan typically requires a decade of preparation, encompassing education, mentoring, knowledge transfer, and hands-on experience. If you haven't started planning yet, you're already playing catch-up.
Truth #2: Data Drives Decisions
Many organizations lack a clear understanding of their workforce demographics and tenure patterns. Without analyzing crucial HR data, companies may miss critical gaps in their leadership pipeline. For instance, an engineering firm discovered they had employees with either 20+ years of experience or less than eight years, with no mid-career professionals. This gap severely limited their succession options and career progression opportunities.
Truth #3: Employee Retention Hinges on Future Opportunities
Employees don't just leave bad bosses; they leave organizations where they can't envision a future. Without clear career paths and growth opportunities, top performers will seek advancement elsewhere. Transparency about future roles and development opportunities is essential for retention.
Truth #4: Succession Begins with Recruitment
Effective succession planning starts even before someone joins the organization. Companies must establish clear career paths showing potential progression over a career “lifespan.” Setting expectations early, including potential lateral or geographical moves, helps set expectations and align individual career goals with organizational needs.
Truth #5: Transparency Eliminates Favoritism
When succession planning is transparent, everyone understands the requirements and opportunities for leadership positions. Like Jack Welch's approach at GE, where potential successors were publicly known, transparent succession planning creates a fair system based on merit and achievement rather than secretive or personal relationships.
Truth #6: Succession Planning Is Strategic Planning
Organizations often mistake succession planning as a "nice-to-have" or future consideration. In truth, it's an integral part of strategic planning. Just as you wouldn't wait until the last minute to secure facilities for a new branch office, you shouldn't delay preparing future leaders.
Truth #7: It's Also Risk Management
Think of succession planning as insurance for business continuity. Having multiple potential successors for key positions protects against unexpected departures or emergencies. Ideally, each key leader should have at least three potential successors at various stages of development, ensuring continuous organizational stability.
Truth #8: External Hires Bring Risk
External hires, particularly at senior leadership levels, often have limited tenure – typically 18 months to three years in Fortune 500 companies. Outside hires bring their own methodologies and require significant time to learn company culture, values, and how to “get things done.” Internal promotions often prove more successful as these individuals already understand the organization's operations and culture.
Truth #9: Focus on Key Roles, Not Just C-Suite
Succession planning shouldn't be limited to top executives. Any position whose vacancy would significantly disrupt operations requires succession planning. This includes technical specialists, key salespeople, and operational managers whose roles are critical to daily business functions.
Truth #10: HR Facilitates But Doesn't Own Succession Planning
While HR plays a crucial role in facilitating succession planning, it shouldn't be solely responsible for this strategic initiative. Surprisingly, traditional HR education and certification programs don't include any kind of training in succession planning. Leadership must actively participate in developing and implementing succession strategies while working collaboratively with HR to execute the plan.
Successful succession planning (say that three times fast!) requires commitment, foresight, and systematic effort. Organizations that embrace these principles position themselves for sustainable growth and leadership continuity, while those that ignore them risk operational disruption and lost opportunities.
In today's dynamic business environment, effective succession planning isn't just about replacing leaders – it's about ensuring organizational resilience and continued success.
Ready to develop your future leaders? Don’t fall victim to these flawed approaches.
Developing strong leaders in-house isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity for organizational success. Unfortunately I see too many companies wait too long and do too little, which hurts their ability to cultivate a healthy, sustainable organization.
Here are a few of the missteps I see repeated over and over – and what you should do instead.
🔘 We’ll wait and see if he/she is management material.
99% of companies that I observe promote somebody to a leadership role first and then retrofit the skills they need to lead others. In fact, according to leadership development firm Zenger Folkman, the average person is in a management role for 10 years before they receive any formal development in how to lead others. Developing leadership skills takes a lot longer than you think and waiting 10 years post-promotion does everyone a disservice not just the “new manager.” It’s like teaching a baby manners. You don’t wait until they’re ten years old and then say “Oh hey, you’re supposed to say thank you after somebody hands you something or fulfills a request you’ve made, OK?”
🔘 Not understanding the ROI of developing leaders from within.
Once I point this out to you you’re going to be shocked that you didn’t see it yourself. Do a back-of-the-napkin calculation of how much it costs your company to replace a leader with someone from outside the company. Not only are there the hard costs of recruiting or paying a headhunter, the time it takes to review resumes and conduct interviews, the negotiations with your chosen individual and the finance department to come to an agreement, and the loss in productivity while you have a vacant leadership position...
Next, add in the less obvious costs like the anxiety that might develop from being leaderless in the affected department and how folks might react - including looking for another job because they are nervous about what will happen next or who will replace the leader who is absent.
And the biggest cost of all is if you’re chosen individual ultimately doesn’t work out and you need to start the whole process over again. The loss of momentum and productivity in a leaderless department is incalculable.
You can avoid these costs by grooming future leaders from within because you will always have somebody at the ready to step up. They might not be 100% ready, but they definitely won’t leave the department with zero leaders. Think of how many supervisors or mid-level managers you have in your company and what it would cost to replace 10% of them a year because that is the average turnover at that level of authority in today’s companies (according to LinkedIn studies of various industries).
🔘 Not recognizing that our younger generations don’t want just a job – Career paths are the secret sauce.
Millennials and GenZ are changing the workforce. Not only because they make up the majority of individuals in the workforce (and that will continue to climb as more and more GenZers come of working age, but they also have a different viewpoint of how work supports their lives.
Earlier generations accepted that work came first and their personal life came next. (I remember interviewing for a job once in which I was told that every salaried individual worked 48 hours; it was a non-negotiable). Older generations also appreciated the fact that their work supported their personal lives and goals. Not so with Millennials and GenZ. These younger generations aren’t satisfied with a “job.” They’re looking for roles that fulfill their personal values and goals and they are looking to work for companies that will support them in achieving personal fulfillment.
This is not too hard for you to achieve; it’s really just a change in perspective. For example, one of the easiest things you can do is create career paths that show the general progression of one’s career with your company from their entry-level position to, potentially, the CEO role. Younger generations appreciate financial security and job security which your company was providing anyway, you just didn’t specifically call it out or emphasize the benefits of joining your company.
🔘 Going all in on a few individuals.
Another common approach I see occurring in companies that do devote time and attention to developing their leaders from within is that they pick and choose individuals rather than spreading the wealth and leveling up the skills of everyone in the organization. When I see this happening, I like to point out that Tom Brady was a ninth-round draft pick in 2000 and Johnny Manziel was a Heisman Trophy winner in 2013 and a first-round draft pick in 2014.
Then I ask folks to choose who they feel was the better investment. 🤔
It is impossible to determine who is going to make a great future leader. It is especially impossible to predict this based on their technical expertise. A better approach is to give everyone leadership skills and see how things shake out in a few years. Those who like leading others and excel at it will naturally rise to the top and you will have upleveled the competencies of all your employees in the meantime. (Who doesn’t want all of their employees to be better communicators or problem solvers? Why reserve those skills for a few individuals?) To add a financial angle to the argument – think of it like an insurance company insuring risk – many people are pooled together with the expectation that only a few will make a claim.
Invest in everyone and you’ll have a few who turn into stellar leaders.
Beyond Random Training: Creating a Strategic Path for Future Leaders
Eight years ago I made a hard right turn in my business. (Or maybe, based on the theme of this article, I should say I made a strategic turn.) I stopped providing leadership development and started saving companies from themselves. I know that sounds extreme but hear me out. The global investment in leadership development is over 300 billion with over half of that (169 billion) occurring in North America. And yet… despite this significant investment most organizations fail to get real, strategic advantage from their investment (source).
I’m not a person who thinks “Maybe if I try harder it will work;” instead I stand back and ask, “Why isn’t this working? and how can I change the outcome?”
After much analysis and reflection, it hit me: Most leadership development is done randomly - there’s no continuity between the learning content [in other words – a lot of random courses] AND there is no connection between what people learn and their on-the-job behavior.
Companies are doing leadership development without a strategy.
The answer to the question “How can I change the outcome?” is this: I need to help companies set their people strategy first.
Once you know who is in the pipeline for future leadership roles, then you are able to conduct development activities purposefully. You’ll reap better results and you’ll be spending your money wisely, not wastefully.
THREE STEPS TO BEGIN DEVELOPING YOUR STRATEGY
1) Update all of your job descriptions.
Have the incumbents take the first pass at this. They know what they do in reality. In addition to a list of “to-do’s” ask them to list all the skills they employ while doing their work. For example, a CSR would list listening skills, being able to verbalize and explain things well, writing skills (for the notes they put in the system), mastery of at least one and probably three different software systems, and more. I would allot 2 weeks to a month for this activity because responsibilities fluctuate from day to day and you want a complete picture of the role and skills. If you have more than one person in a role, you might bring them all together at the end of the process and have them compare and contrast their descriptions to create one that they all agree on.
2) Make a chain of job descriptions.
Start lining up your collected job descriptions in “order.” For instance, an entry-level clerk can go on to become a clerk supervisor a unit manager a division manager, and eventually a general manager. When you put these job descriptions end-to-end you’ll see the natural progression of skills and you’ll know what to start proactively teaching your up-and-coming leaders. For instance, a clerk might need to master a lot of factual information in order to answer the public’s questions, while a clerk supervisor or manager will need to be better skilled at emotional intelligence, listening and giving feedback, perhaps presentation skills, and more.
NOTE: You will have to extrapolate some skills from the job descriptions, for instance, dealing with angry customers will translate to conflict management, negotiation, or recognizing bias.
3) Develop career paths and learning paths.
Now that you have a path of career progress for each role, make it a formal document so that people see the future of their career with your company. AND “overlay” learning requirements on top of each role. For instance, now, instead of promoting someone to supervisor and hoping they have appropriate conversational skills, you’ll require them to have that training before they are promoted.
I promised three steps, so I’ll stop here, but the next level of strategy aligns with more purposeful performance reviews, coaching and/or mentoring, and analyzing job descriptions and skills for lateral movement which opens more possibilities for career advancement within the company and maximizes your leadership development return on investment.
If you’d like to learn more about these next levels of strategic people development, Contact Us!
Succession Planning Questions I Am Regularly Asked
For the past few weeks, I've been polling my personal followers and asking them questions about succession planning.
Then, the following day I give the answer.
This article is an abbreviated compilation of those polls and responses.
One of the top questions I get from clients is: When do you start preparing future leaders?
When someone is getting ready to move “up” or “out” is the typically the time when thoughts turn to succession planning. People start thinking, “Who should replace me?,” which is years too late.
The situation that we encounter a lot when companies call us with succession planning needs is that there is generally a key person who is ready to retire (or already did!) and there's no one in the organization to replace them. If you've got a chosen few that lead the organization and no one else in a leadership pipeline, I hate to tell you this, but you have a crisis situation.
Let's look at it this way: If you had a deadline to get married, say by age 40, but you waited until you were 39 to start dating - what is the likelihood of meeting your deadline? What are the chances that you'd choose someone who was not ideal just so you could make the deadline? Waiting too long begets rushed, decisions under pressure which are rarely the best, wouldn't you agree?
You don't want to have to simply “choose” someone - you want to “love” the person you've chosen.
Answer: The answer is on day one, ASAP, the minute they walk in the door. You want to constantly be preparing folks to move up in their careers so that your transitions occur in a planned, logical, purposeful manner.
Get everyone prepared to be a future leader. Those who enjoy it and excel at it will rise to leadership positions and those who don't enjoy it will, at the very least, be a lot more knowledgeable and able to contribute more to your organization. You can't go wrong if everybody has the ability to make good decisions, to communicate well, to collaborate with others, to be a problem solver, etc.
Another frequent question we get is: How should we pick future leaders?
In a workshop I recently conducted with small business owners, this topic came up organically in the group when one of the attendees said, “I would hire somebody for their leadership aptitude out of the gate. I can teach them to do the work. I would have had a hard time teaching them to be a leader.”
It's an interesting perspective, and I don't necessarily disagree with it, but... I will argue it for the sake of argument because our company philosophy is: Leadership From Day One. In keeping with that philosophy, I say: let's give everyone leadership skills and capabilities the minute they walk in the door. As soon as you hire them, they should be in a rotation of developing communication skills, problem-solving, critical thinking, working collaboratively, understanding finance or how the business makes money, how much money the business keeps, who your competitors are, the list goes on and on! If you start developing skills early in someone's career, I think more people are going to show leadership “aptitude.”
So, let's assume everyone has the aptitude and it’s up to us to grow it. And then from there we'll decide, or they will decide if they want to be a leader or not.
The final question for today is: When do you start communicating a leadership transition?
This is a question that comes up a lot because, for some reason, many organizations and their leaders think succession planning is a top-secret mission. But not communicating your transition plans makes people nervous for their futures.
You, as the CEO or the owner of the company, are planning your own future (retirement or exit), right? And you're planning for the future of the company - how you want it to continue to thrive when you are gone, yes? Well, directly or indirectly you're also planning your employees’ futures. I don't think enough C-Suite leaders recognize that people are watching you and wondering what's happening “up there” in the C-suite?
Here's a perfect example of what happens when you don't communicate your succession/transition plans:
This past year we began working with a five-person C-suite team to plan for the retirements of their CEO and COO. Starting at meeting number two, I kept suggesting that they needed to let their staff know why we were coming to their offices and going behind closed doors. I advised the team that the staff was probably becoming concerned and that what we were doing was not nefarious and didn't have to be covert.
I suggested a simple video message from the CEO or an e-mail that said, “Hey you probably have seen this team coming in regularly. We're planning for the future of the organization. We're planning for when we are ready to retire. What next leaders do you think should be in the pipeline, so that this company continues to be successful?” Unfortunately, they didn't heed our advice. The CEO said something along the lines of, “I know my people, they're not concerned.” And then, about three months into our work, one of their key division leaders left.
It was a gut punch, not only to the CEO, but to the operations of the company.
If you have a smaller company (under 1000 employees,) in which divisions are run by one key leader and you don't have any backup plans because you haven't started succession planning yet, you are not only vulnerable to losing a key person, you're vulnerable to affecting the company financially precisely because of losing a key person. If you treat succession planning like standard operating procedure, there's nothing to be nervous about because employees see, that from day one, you have planned for the ongoing success of the organization.
If you'd like to learn more about how to make succession planning standard operating procedure, drop a note in the comments and we can have a quick phone call or take a look at this blog post that talks about how to institute succession planning as an SOP.
Succession planning isn't just a task you turn your attention not when you’re ready to move up the ladder or retire (if you’re the leader of the company) —it should be an integral part of how your organization operates every day. Start early, communicate openly, and create a culture where leadership readiness is woven into the fabric of your business.
Cheers!
The Best Leaders Know "Who They Are"
I was recently chatting with a new acquaintance, and we were speaking of a mutual friend; my new acquaintance said, "He was so concrete-sequential."
I nearly leaped out of my chair! I said, "What? I'm concrete-sequential! I've never heard anyone ever say that before other than me!"
My husband, who was with us, asked "What does concrete sequential mean?"
It means - in my case - once I have a plan, I stick to the plan. It must be carried out in the order it was designed. For the most part, this works well for me because I like to make lists and check things off my list (in fact, I just made a list of the 5 things I have to get done today, before EOD, and writing this article was #1, so here I am!). People have always asked me, "How do you manage to get so much done?" It's the plan, man.
It also can work "against" me in that once I have a plan I stick to the plan. (Isn't that what I just said in the previous paragraph? Yup.) For example, if I am behind schedule and it would make sense to revisit the plan - I don't. I just work harder and longer. If 8-hour days won't get us back on track, then I'll work 12-hour days, but I won't consider if I might outsource, or possibly skip (heaving forbid!) a step because it's really not crucial.... nope. The plan is the plan.
I have known I was concrete sequential since I was in college and took a course centered around assessments. Every week we took a new assessment and the following week we got our results and processed what that meant for us as a person, as a team member, as a leader, etc. The assessment I took that taught me I was concrete-sequential is called the Grecoric Style Delineator.
So what is the point of this ⬆️ story?
The point is: Knowing who you are and how you operate can help you to be a better leader. Assessments can help to define learning styles, personality traits, leadership potential, and more. You'll find abilities you can capitalize on and detriments you can learn to overcome because you recognize when they are in play.
There are many "name-brand" assessments that can be purchased and often require a certified practitioner to help process what the outcomes mean and how to use that knowledge to your best advantage (DiSC, MBTI, Predictive Index, etc.). I'm not knocking any of them - they truly are all great - BUT here are three that are free so you can get started today.
You can use them for your own self-enlightenment or use them with your team to create a better understanding of individual and team dynamics.
By the way, just because these are free does not mean they have not been carefully researched and validated.
Enjoy!
Via Character Strengths Assessment Link
This assessment helps you to identify your strengths so that you can capitalize on them; do you work well in teams, do you prefer to make decisions based on facts, etc.
A unique feature is Viana, an AI chat-based "coach" that helps you "blaze a trail towards personal and professional growth."
The LeadX EQ Self Assessment Link
EQ is also known as emotional intelligence and it has become a critical skill for leaders in the workplace due to younger generations entering the workforce and their appreciation for different ways of being recognized and valued.
The report you receive upon completion offers a handful of ways to enhance your EQ, based on your results and you can delve deeper with a 12-week EQ coaching plan.
Sparketype Link
This assessment is based on the "intangibles" that make a person "come alive." The premise is to help you align your spark with the work that would ignite it - regardless of job title, industry, or company. There is also an accompanying book that delves into the 50 million data points collected from the more than one million people who have taken the assessment.
After you take any (or all) of the assessment, we'd love to hear your results and how they affect your leadership!
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
Changing Direction For YOU!
The Training Doctor has been in business for over 30 years but only in the last eight years did we significantly blow the business up and change direction. Why? For You!
Several societal events converged to make us change direction. Think of them as the perfect storm.
First, in 2015 the US census said that all the Boomers would be out of the workplace by 2030. Having consulted within professional development departments for many Fortune 500 companies in the prior 25 years, and knowing how little had been done to prepare younger generations for leadership roles, and knowing how long it takes to develop a leader... I immediately began to worry.
Next, I realized that we (here at the company) were part of the problem. For the first 25 years of our existence, we custom-designed training programs for companies and handed them back for implementation. The design work that we did was always for a job or role. We never built a well-rounded business person.
So, the confluence of younger people being promoted to roles for which they were unprepared, combined with their lack of years on the job (as opposed to Boomers who generally stayed with an employer for decades), was concerning.
The question keeping me up at night:
Who will be capable of running companies in 10 years if they don’t know how a company runs?
And then...the pandemic hit, and my worries came to fruition overnight.
❓ So why did we stop helping companies with their training and development?
❓ Didn’t I just say that preparing the younger generation was a huge motivator?
Yes.
BUT
Developing the skills of younger people is not enough.
Companies need to know why they are developing their younger generation and they need to know they are developing the right skills.
And that’s why we changed direction.
There are very few companies (if any—honestly, we haven’t found a competitor yet) that help you figure out this critical element. ⬇️
Before you start developing your up-and-coming leaders – you need a succession plan to ensure that you know who you are developing and for which roles.
You also need to assess your likely vacancies in the next few years and ensure you don’t go out of business because one critical role becomes vacant.
We changed direction because we are on a mission.
Our mission is to help small and medium-sized businesses to not go out of business because they didn’t look—and plan—far enough ahead.
If you’d like us to help you with YOUR mission – Let’s Talk!
Using Assessments for Professional Development
In a recent column of SHRM’s HR Quarterly, the CEO of SHRM addressed the looming talent crisis by writing:
We must start challenging lazy recruiting tactics that synonymize degrees with “smart.” We need to embrace other ways of measuring competency. This starts by having clear hiring needs - knowing the ins and outs of what a job will entail and what kind of skills should be required for someone to succeed in that role. Shifting the talent acquisition process will require reassessing how hiring is done, making strategic decisions about how to evaluate alternative credentials and committing to upskilling and reskilling employees once they're in the door.
Coincidentally, on September 26 we hosted our quarterly Succession Planning Forum where we discussed using assessments for professional development purposes: which ones to use, why use them, how do they help the individual, and how do they benefit the organization?
The conversation with our two guest-experts, Erin Eason , HR Director of H+M Industrials and Misha Homara, CEO of TriCore Panels leaned quite a bit towards the use of assessments when recruiting and onboarding new hires and when transitioning employees to new teams or hiring a new leader from outside the organization.
Here are some of the reasons they use assessments and the advice they offered for companies that are looking to start using assessments with their employees.
Logos of various assessments used in the workplace.
But first, let’s define what an assessment is:
An assessment is an evaluation or an estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone.
H+M uses assessments as a way to guide interviews and choose new team members with more than just a gut feeling. Assessments help the company to identify specific things about a position that can be measured and that will help to determine if someone is likely to be able to meet those criteria and be successful. Eason stated that the hiring managers/engineers of the company are extremely appreciative to have data that they trust and can use in their decision making besides their own judgment.
Assessments are also used to help develop role descriptions, analyze the abilities and habits of people who succeed or did not succeed in particular roles, and thereby build “profiles of success” for future candidates.
A third beneficial way that H&M has used assessments is to round out teams with someone who is able to bring something new to the team.
Assessments have also been used sparingly to provide 3600 feedback so that managers and leaders can gain meaningful insights about their behaviors and performance from those they work with. “I’ve seen those make a difference,” said Eason.
According to Eason, assessments are well received, add speed and accuracy to personnel decisions, and improve teams and team performance.
STORY
Enzo is loved by his employees. He works in the field with them as well as socializes with them after work, one or two nights a week. He spends his nights and weekends running the company and unfortunately that sometimes means he misses deadlines, paychecks are late, and RFPs are never submitted because he has run out of time. He prides himself on the “good working relationship” he has with his employees, but an assessment reveals that he is actually too collaborative and often fails to make decisions.
TriCore Panels’ Homara praised assessments for providing her leadership team members with insight into why others do things the way they do; which enhanced respect and understanding and allowed for better conversations and relationship building. Using herself as an example, Homara explain that she has a lot of ideas which she constantly “springs on” her team and through assessments she has learned to identify when she should share her ideas vs. when she should table them for a later time.
She went on to explain that assessments are “particularly important when the company has onboarded someone new in a leadership role with direct reports. Assessments give the new leader insight into who their team is instead of requiring that new leader to spend a couple of months trying to figure out people’s “personalities.”
A third use of assessments at TriCore is to identify if someone will be a good cultural fit with the company. This has been particularly important in the last five years as Homara has grown the company from 30 individuals to 50, and added critical leadership roles in HR, Operations, and others.
STORY
Beth had been with her company for nearly a decade. She was promoted to run a branch office and hit it off well with her new direct reports. She had the business intelligence as well as the social intelligence to motivate her team while simultaneously directing and eliciting good work. Unfortunately, Beth found that she missed being in the field meeting customers, making in-the-moment decisions, and seeing the “fruits of her labor.” After three months she asked to be “demoted” back to her former position. Had she had the opportunity to take an assessment, she might have known that a leadership role would not fulfill her.
Here are the tips and advice that both Eason and Homara shared about incorporating assessments into your leadership toolbox:
Ask your network about the assessments they use and why (what they like and don’t like).
Test all assessments on yourself first; don’t implement something you haven’t checked out fully
Take a few different assessments before deciding on one.
Only implement one assessment to begin with; ensure you use it properly and purposefully so that it becomes part of the culture / part of the “language” of your organization
Don’t discount the effort that goes into implementation; it takes time
Make it easy for people to use; if you’re making it another thing on people’s “to do” list you won’t be as successful and therefore won’t reap the rewards
Use a consultant to help you introduce and administer the assessment for the first few rounds; then you can take over managing it yourself
If you don’t choose to use a consultant, be sure that whoever is “in charge” internally has the ability to truly dedicate themselves to the process (for example, Homara first owned the process for a few years before the company hired a full time HR role and then handed the responsibility over to that person)
Eason summarized the Forum nicely by stating that assessments are “an excellent way to move into the next phase of construction – when things are moving so quickly - to make sure you have the right team to help you get there.”
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
What Kind of Succession Planning is This?
We recently started working with a new client precisely because there was confusion over what kind of succession planning was going on.
The current leadership team (the original founders), felt that they already had a succession plan in place, but the next leaders who were ready to move up and take over some C-suite roles kept saying, “No, there's no plan here, and we’re worried!”
So let's talk about three kinds of succession planning, and why there is confusion.
1) The first is operational. It's about the business. It's about ensuring that the business has continuity and requires the leadership team to identify key roles in the organization. What I always like to say is, a key role is the kind of position that – if that person were to leave – you’d be saying, “Ohh, crap.”
Funny Story (not really) of Poor Operational Planning:
Many years ago, I was on a town hall conference call with a client. The CEO was going over financials and stated that the company had missed their mark for the third quarter, but he was confident that they would recover by the end of the year because the lead sales salesperson was coming back from maternity leave.
Did you just have the same reaction that I did upon hearing that?
What? The financial success of that company hinged on ONE SALESPERSON?!
2) The second kind of succession planning is the one that I think most business owners think of as succession planning, and that's the transactional kind. How do I exit the business? How do I get it ready for sale? What's the value? What's the timeline? That’s what most business owners (and even attorneys) define as succession planning; and this is where our new client, mentioned at the intro, found itself stuck. “We’ve handled the legal, the financial, and the timeline – what do you youngin’s mean we don’t have a succession plan?”
FYI: his is more accurately defined as exit planning.
3) Finally, the third type of succession planning is what we – at The Training Doctor - do, which we can refer to as organizational succession planning. In organizational succession planning you focus on the people in the organization who have the potential to lead it in the future and together we create a pipeline of future leaders by designing professional development, giving them experiences, tasking them with increasing responsibility, etc. Over time you should have a pipeline of people - at all stages of their careers – who are being prepared to lead departments, divisions, and even the whole organization at some point in the future.
In summary – there are really three types of succession planning and it’s important to know which type you need and when. Typically operational is first – this prevents you from having to deal with a crisis. Then organizational - to prepare the company for growth and sustainability. And finally transactional to ensure all your hard work and planning pay off not only for you, but for the people you employ.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
Your Succession Plan Starts a Lot Earlier Than You Think
I recently began working with a small engineering firm to help them with their CEO and COO succession plan. In their favor... they are planning 2 – 10 years in advance (two years for one role and ten years for the other) and they have three potential internal candidates whom they hope will rise to the C-Suite.
Unfortunately, they were unaware that they also have a looming leadership crisis.
As I always do before starting work with a new client, I asked for some HR data:
how many employees over the age of 50?
what is the rate of turnover?
what is the average tenure?
The bar-chart they provided me (see image) depicting tenure was alarming - there is a large gap in mid-career professionals! The employees at this company have been there for eight years or less, or 20+ years. There really is no one who has been there for 10 to 20 years.
Do you see the problem that I see? While the firm's leadership is concentrating on their upcoming succession, I am looking down the road to the next one. Right now, it appears they will not successfully have another succession without some major decisions about grooming their younger workers to accelerate their leadership capabilities or potentially hiring from outside the organization so that the new CEO doesn't turn around in 10 years and realize there's no one for him to pass the baton to.
A recent Korn Ferry article tells us that this situation is going to be more and more common in the coming decade because companies are not hiring as many young, unskilled, entry-level workers as they have in the past. In fact, jobs growth for college graduates is expected to be negative for 2024. Kate Shattuck, a global co-leader of Impact Investing and ESG and Sustainability at Korn Ferry sums up the future: Firms risk creating a leadership and management vacuum by not building a bench of young talent. It sets the stage for a crisis ten years from now when you don’t have people to take over.
So – what are some things you can do to mitigate this risk?
Of course, it starts with getting younger workers in the door. And one of the best ways to do that is through the use of career paths. Identify what skills will be learned in each entry-level role and how those skills might be utilized in different roles (aka through lateral moves). Map this out in a colorful way on a piece of paper to be used during recruiting and interviews. Young people today would like to have a long-term career at your firm, but most of them don’t see it as a possibility because they only see career growth as a vertical path. Demonstrate to them that they will have the opportunity to learn many areas of the business in order to find their “happy place.” 😊 Ultimately, this benefits the organization because you have better-skilled employees to choose from for future-leader roles.
If you find your company to be at immediate risk, like the company depicted in the image, then start now to purposefully hire mid-career managers. There are two important parts to the previous sentence:
Start Now – so that you can be choosy about who will join your team. If you know that you need to hire a mid-career professional today to fill a future leadership role ten years from now, you can take your time to find the perfect candidate whose skills, ambitions, and potential will meet your future needs.
Purposeful means ensuring that you have clearly established what a leader looks like and how they behave in your organization.
Every organization has a “definition” of a leader, but it is rarely voiced out loud. A leader in a healthcare setting might be valued more for their ethics, compassion, and ability to manage chaos. While a leader in a tech company may be valued for innovation, collaboration, and risk-taking/risk management. Without a clear definition of the skills and behaviors of a leader in your organization, hiring “any old” mid-career professional will not necessarily ensure that you are also hiring a future leader. If you’d like help identifying the behaviors of a leader in your organization, you can start with this starter list I’ve been developing for the last year by polling all the audiences I’ve spoken to.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
Real World Learning: Teaching vs Learning
I promised I would expound on what I meant by the concept of real world learning. So here we go!
First, let me differentiate between teaching and learning.
Teaching tends to be passive. It is the transfer of knowledge or skills from one person to another.
Whereas learning can be characterized by those AHA moments when someone says, "Oh, I get it!" They think they arrived at the answer themselves, but really you guided them there.
So how do we go about learning people rather than teaching people?
(Yes I know that's poor grammar. I hope it elicited a chuckle because that's what it was supposed to do!) 😜
How Do We Help People Learn?
𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦: Do you think the inspector would approve this? What would be the logical next step? How could you prevent this from happening again in the future?
𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦: Do you have any questions for me? How can I help? I'll check back in 20 minutes to see if you have any questions.
𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞 𝗜𝗡 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗬: When you’re asking people to learn something that stretches their abilities, don't simply give instructions and walk away, check-in with them frequently. How's it going? Any hiccups? Anything I can help you with? Don't forget, my job is to help you do your job better.
𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: Remember how long it took you to master the alphabet? Easily a year or more. And the alphabet was just the 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 for where you were going... creating words, reading sentences, understanding context... Don't be frustrated when you think to yourself, Why have I said this three time already this week? That's how people learn!
And finally, 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡 𝗕𝗬 𝗗𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚. Remember when you learned to drive a car? Did the classroom portion of driver's ed teach you? Or the actual driving portion? It was the latter. It wasn't a trick question.
Things can make sense in theory and be entirely different in practice. People need hands-on interaction with what they are learning - whether that's how to run a cash register, or how to ask open-ended questions...
None of these tactics require going to a training class, they require consistent application of learning principles.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
Winning: Succession Planning as an Offensive Business Tactic
I'll admit that I use the gloom and doom approach when marketing our succession planning services. What if your CEO gets hit by a bus?! I use that tactic because it gets attention faster.
But there are plenty of positive reasons to use succession planning in your business. Succession planning isn't just a way to mitigate risk and avoid catastrophic consequences. It can also drive innovation, enhance stability, and foster long-term growth.
Think of business like a sport. Crisis management, compliance, risk mitigation, and maintaining quality are all defensive strategies. Offensive strategies are designed to seize opportunities, drive growth and innovation, and establish a competitive advantage. Aggressive marketing campaigns, innovative product launches, and strategic acquisitions are offensive strategies.
So where do people fit in the offensive strategy?
Having the right people in the right positions at the right time, are all key. Succession planning, when aligned with an offensive strategy, goes beyond mere risk aversion to become a catalyst for success.
THE BENEFITS OF OFFENSIVE SUCCESSION PLANNING
Driving Innovation and Continuity
By identifying and nurturing future leaders from within, organizations can ensure a continuous flow of fresh ideas and perspectives as higher potential employees are exposed to diverse experiences, challenges, and perspectives, they naturally develop innovative mindsets and problem-solving skills. An internal pipeline of talent can drive initiatives that keep the company at the forefront of industry trends and technological advances. Companies like Google and Apple have strong internal succession plans that not only safeguard leadership continuity but also maintain innovation.Eye on the Future
Succession planning is not just about stability in leadership but also stability in the company's vision and strategic direction. Knowing that there is a clear plan for leadership transition encourages bolder decision-making and long-term investments, aligning with an offensive strategy aimed at growth and market leadership.Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
Top-performing companies don't wait for leadership gaps to appear; they continuously cultivate a pipeline of future leaders. Companies that prioritize succession planning signal their commitment to employee development and career progression which makes it easier to attract high-caliber talent. Likewise, existing employees are more likely to stay and invest their efforts at a company that provides a clear pathway to career advancement (not solely leadership roles). Talent retention is critical for maintaining competitive advantage and operational excellence - key elements of an offensive business strategy.Competitive Advantage
We recently worked with an engineering firm that had a headquarters in one state and five branches in three other states. In a private conversation with me, the CEO shared that the company could probably triple revenue if all of the branches offered the same services that headquarters offered…but they simply did not have the right personnel at their branches to offer each line of service. That's a “perfect” example of a lack of preparing for growth and competitive advantage. By preparing future leaders well in advance, companies ensure that they have the right people ready to lead projects, enter new markets, and drive initiatives. In other words - they have a competitive edge.Cultivate a Leadership Culture
Offensive succession planning promotes a culture of leadership throughout the organization. It encourages a focus on developing leadership qualities at all levels, ensuring that core values, vision, decision making, strategic thinking, and accountability are part of the organizational fabric. A leadership culture enhances the company’s agility and resilience – which is a non-negotiable these days. AND this approach is hugely attractive to GenZ who have witnessed or experienced a number of “life events” that have shaped their perspective on the security of a career and continuous learning in order to be agile and in control of their future.
Shhh, it's your secret advantage
Given the fast-changing business environment of the 2020’s, companies are constantly attempting to outmaneuver the competition. Here’s the “secret sauce:” succession planning. It’s not just a defensive measure- it’s a powerful offensive tactic.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
How to Determine the Level of Development Your Up-and-Coming Leaders Needs
You might be curious as to what these pictures and labels mean. It’s an easy way for you to determine the level of professional development your employees need. I want to give credit to @Stephanie Allen, a Fractional COO, who shared this with me - I've adapted it a bit. This exercise is a huge hit with my @Vistage audiences. Every time I have a group assess their leadership candidates, the conversations are very lively, and nine times out of 10, there will be more than a few individuals who will say, “Oh, I'm going to take this back and do this with my own group!”
So here's what you do when you're assessing individuals in your organization and determining what level of development they need. You're going to classify them as a line cook, a home chef, or a professional chef.
Let me expound.
✅ A line cook does a job? They flip the hamburgers, they're in charge of the fries, they do all the prep work, etc. They are a very good individual contributor. They know their job well, but that's all that they do. They're going to need to learn a lot of other skills in the kitchen; they will require the most development to get to the level of a professional chef.
✅ If you have a home chef, that’s a person who can do meal planning, follow a recipe, procure ingredients, and coordinate various tasks so that all the elements of the meal that require different prep times and cooking processes will be put on the table at the same time. A home cook may plan four or five days in advance, they can accommodate special requests if necessary, but they have a limited, project-based focus. They are quite a bit more skilled than the line chef but in a very defined “space.” They will need to expand and refine their current skills.
✅ Finally, we have the professional chef. A professional chef is a person who knows the front of the house, the back of the house, they can do procurement on a massive scale, they can give instruction to 14 different people because they know all of the positions, they generally know more than one cuisine, and have studied under multiple other chefs to expand their capabilities. It takes years to become a professional chef because of all the knowledge and skill required. You can put a lot of faith in this level of employee, asking them to venture into areas in which they aren’t skilled, but because of their body of knowledge they’ll confidently figure it out.
So, now that you know the definitions, how do you execute this in your organization and why?
WHY - This is an easier way for managers to conceptualize performance reviews and,
HOW - using these three labels to determine what kind of development their folks need, and to what level.
✅ The individual contributor will benefit from a variety of professional development opportunities.
✅ The home chef has a lot of good skills but will need to bring them up a few levels. They’ll need to improve consistency, quality, variety, and perhaps begin to specialize (although my preference is to “grow” generalist business professionals, not specialists).
✅ And the professional chef should be utilized to coach and mentor the others. Capitalize on their extensive experience and knowledge to uplevel their younger/newer peers.
The Ecosystem of Succession Planning
I harp on succession planning (a business strategy that involves identifying, developing, and replacing leadership roles) a lot - but it's really one part of an ecosystem your company should be implementing.
This topic came to mind because I was recently speaking to a group of executives of small companies, and after my presentation, one of the people in the audience came up to me and said, “Succession planning is a lot like a Rubik's cube, isn't it?” I thought to myself, “That is a really apt description!”
A Rubik’s Cube
Think of each color on the Rubik's Cube as being a part a different part of the succession planning process - they can be aligned or they can be jumbled up (no real order).
It is not a straightforward process which is probably why so many companies put it on the “To Do Later” list.
So, in this article, I'm going to show you what that ecosystem contains and all the internal practices that will make up the totality of your succession planning. Before I share the model, however, I want to share an insight I recently learned from a Society for Human Resource Management publication. The publication is called People and Strategy and the April 2024 edition had a whole section focused on succession planning. One of the articles in that section talked about the fact that HR processes are built into supporting succession planning. And that perspective is built into our model / ecosystem of succession planning.
The Ecosystem of the Succession Planning Process
Starting at the 12 o’clock position and moving clockwise, all of these things are things that the HR department manages. They can create career paths for roles in the company. They can conduct assessments or hire companies to conduct assessments to determine people's aptitude, their leadership qualities, etc. The succession planning process and the performance appraisal process should be aligned so that every year or six months, however often you're holding your performance appraisal conversations, you're also asking people about their future aspirations in the organization and looking to how you can support those. Will they need experiences? Will they need instruction? Should they get a certification, etc.?
Next, HR is very much involved with professional development; especially if you don't have a dedicated training and development department, then HR will be the resource for finding professional development opportunities for your employees. HR can also create and manage coaching and mentoring opportunities within the organization as well.
BUT HR is NOT the owner of the succession planning process. Ownership needs to come from the C-suite because it is a strategic initiative, and in many cases it's a risk management initiative as well. So you want the leaders of the company to own that mission and then HR - through all of their responsibilities just discussed - can help to carry the process out.
So, it occurred to me as I heard this comment about the Rubik's cube… I just read this article from SHRM… and we've just debuted our Primer (see Note, below)… that really all of us are saying the same thing! Succession Planning can be a complex process, but you don't have to tackle it all at the same time. Knowing what elements support the succession planning process is very beneficial.
Note: We have a one-hour video-based self-study course called the HR Succession Planning Primer that might be helpful to HR professionals to learn what their role is and what the order of succession planning is, if you're about to roll it out in your organization. This model is part of one of those lessons.
What's the Definition of Succession Planning?
A few weeks ago I was a guest on a podcast and the host asked me the simplest of questions:
How do you simply define succession planning?
My response:
Having a pipeline of ready and capable future leaders, which sounds simple and succinct, right?
But the more I’ve reflected on it, the more I've realized that it's really a complex answer that needs unpacking.
What is a pipeline?
A pipeline means more than one person capable of advancing to a leadership position. In the case of succession planning a pipeline means having people who will have the skills your company will need in three years, five years, etc. [Check out this short video on the difference between future leaders and replacement leaders.]
A pipeline means you need to have depth (just picture a pipe – they are long!), not only more than one person, but also more than one generation. When you have multiple generations in the pipeline you have the luxury of slowly preparing future leaders as they work their way up the ladder, which saves you from having to hire leaders from outside the organization (an expensive and risky undertaking).
So a pipeline is more than one individual and more than one generation being prepared to be a potential successor.
Defining Capable and Ready
Most companies don’t think far enough ahead to define what will be needed from future leaders? You need to look at more than functional skills when hiring someone. Skills tell us about their functional prowess: What size budget did they manage? How many people did they manage? What kind of projects did they lead? But in the context of succession planning, you also want to consider their leadership qualifications: What is their belief system about developing others? How often do they provide feedback? What’s the biggest project they allowed one of their direct reports to lead, and how did it work out?
If you’d like 10 Questions to Ask When Interviewing for Leadership – click here.
How far in advance should you be preparing people? Best practice dictates looking ahead and preparing people for future roles 3, 5, and even 10 years in advance. If someone is promoted to a first-line supervisor today, how will you grow their skills and where will they be in three years, in five years? Where could they be in 10 years?
Example:
We just finished working with a client that has a headquarters in one state and offices in five other states. The company shared with us that they could be doing three times the revenue they are doing today if they had people to fill critical leadership roles in the “satellite” offices. (For example, the headquarters office provides environmental consulting, but only two of the five satellite offices do so as well because they do not have people to lead those service lines in the other three offices.) Because they didn’t prepare their own people to fill critical roles in those other states, their only option is to hire leaders from outside the company, but the right talent is hard to find – and expensive. Had they started developing future leaders 5 or 10 years ago, they would not find themselves in this money-losing dilemma. None of those 5 offices is living up to their potential.
Conclusion:
So ready and capable future leaders means to think ahead. Where do you want the company to be in five years and what leaders will you need in the pipeline today to achieve that future?
Success Story:
One of my SCORE clients runs a very successful cocktail bar with just two full-time employees. He is ready to hire a third employee - not because today's business demands it, but because his vision is to open an event space next door and he wants his current employees to be the people who will move over to lead the new facility. So we are constantly discussing - what skills will they need to be capable of managing their own team in the new facility? This small business owner is the perfect example of thinking ahead.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
Six Ways to Sink Your Succession Planning
I often speak about how to conduct succession planning correctly, but recently I was asked to share the opposite - what might you do wrong to sink your succession planning? I didn't have an answer right away, but I've been mulling it over for a month or so now, and I've identified 6 things that can sink your succession planning.
❶ Your succession plan is not based on the future of the company
In other words, you shouldn’t be replacing like-with-like. Don’t look at today’s leaders and ask: Where else or who else can we find with these skills? Succession planning should be looking 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Be futuristic in your thinking and ask: Where will this company be in five years? Where will we be in 10 years? And don't just think about your company, your leaders, or your product or service…project what could change in consumer sentiment, what new government regulations might exist, what external conditions might be different when your current leaders will have retired. What skills will a future leader need?
❷ Not being transparent with potential leaders
Companies lose a lot of very talented mid-career individuals when they don't tell them they are in the leadership pipeline. I see it with clients all the time. They know where they think a certain person will be in three or five years, but they haven't told the individual.
When a talented individual feels that they’ve hit a plateau in their career, they start to think: I might as well look elsewhere to learn more, to be stimulated, to get that title I aspire to.
So be transparent with folks that you believe are on the leadership trajectory; of course, tell them Conditions might change, but we see you have leadership potential.
❸ Failing to develop breadth in people’s capabilities
We have a nation of people who are specialists. We've done a terrible job in corporate America of giving people well-rounded business knowledge. We've kept people in their professional silos (e.g. Enter in a finance role and all future development will only be in finance) for decades. As you're getting future leaders prepared, give them a wider lens into how the business works beyond what they do in their current role.
❹ Not looking to the second and third generation of future leaders
In other words, not developing depth. Remember, succession planning is future-focused. You want more than one “level” of leader in the pipeline. Who are you preparing now, for a leadership role 10 or 12 years from now?
❺ Not looking for outside leaders early enough
We have found, in the work that we do with our clients, that there often is not someone in the organization who is capable of being promoted in the next three to five years (see example, below) and the "solution" in the client's mind is, That's a problem for three years down the road.
It's not.
It's a problem for today.
If you identify that there is no one who could step in in an emergency - or even a planned exit, three years from now - you want to start looking for an outside person today because it takes them that long to acclimate, to emulate your culture, to really get a grasp on the long term vision and goals of the organization, and to forge all those internal relationships they need to be a productive leader.
Real World Example
We were working with a small senior leadership team of nine individuals. Each individual was tasked with suggesting who might replace them. One individual showed up on the list of three current leaders! Clearly, he would not replace them all. And when pressed, the leadership team was firm in their belief that no one else in the organization was capable of stepping up soon enough.
The company needed to look for outside leaders with the appropriate skills ASAP.
❻ Not revisiting the plan yearly
Too many organizations say, Great, we've got a succession plan. Let's put it on the shelf and when somebody leaves a position, we'll take it out and see who we chose.
Instead, you must revisit the plan yearly. Situations change, people change, people upgrade their capabilities, they become interested in something else... succession planning should be a constant conversation, just like performance reviews are a constant conversation you are having with people every year (hopefully more than that) about their career trajectory. Your senior leadership team should be having constant yearly conversations about who is in the pipeline and what positions might need to be filled.
Summary: Six ways that you can sync your succession plan:
You're looking to replace today's leaders with people who are just like them.
You are not transparent with the people that are in your succession pipeline.
You're not developing people's breadth of knowledge about how your organization runs.
You're not developing a succession plan with depth (looking ahead two or three generations).
You are waiting too late to bring in outside leaders to fill future vacancies.
You are not revisiting the succession plan yearly.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.
Announcing! The HR Primer for Succession Planing
We get calls from HR professionals weekly, asking for help with their succession planning.
~ Where to start?
~ Where is the playbook for this?
~ Is this really my job?
We can’t be everywhere… so we’ve developed this resource for HR!
Introducing the HR Primer for Succession Planning.
Here’s What You’ll Learn:
Session 1 – Baseline Data
· What baseline data do you need to collect so that you can intelligently and confidently talk to your senior leadership team about the urgency of your succession planning “situation.”
· Who (in terms of generation) should you be looking at – within your organization – to potentially be a future leader?
· Why you don’t want to hire senior leadership from outside the organization.
· What control and/or influence HR has in the process and how to confidently push back when you are asked to do things you cannot influence.
· What is the timeframe for getting the next generation of leaders prepared?
Session 2 – Build from Within or Hire from Outside the Company?
· Why the company needs an updated vision, mission, and goals before starting succession planning.
· How to help the senior leadership team to identify the current vision, mission, and goals.
· Leadership is NOT a universal concept: Defining what a “future leader” needs to look like in your organization (with resource).
· Assessing the current pipeline of potential leaders against those competencies/behaviors.
· If you DO have to hire leaders from outside the organization – be sure you are interviewing for leadership competencies, not skills or accomplishments (with resource).
Session 3 – Attitude, Commitment and Perseverance
· Succession planning is NOT a one-time endeavor, it is an ongoing process; therefore you need to be sure your senior leaders are committed to the process.
· Questions your senior leadership team needs to consider, make a decision on, and be aligned on, in order for the succession planning process to be successful (with resource).
· Sometimes doing nothing is the only course of action to take.
· How to make the process more manageable.
· When developing future leaders from within – how is success measured (given it is a multi-year process)?
Session 4 – Supporting Succession Planning and Leadership Development
· The purpose of successful planning is sustained leadership development.
· Model: The eco-system for succession planning (the succession plan does not stand alone).
· Model: The leadership development that is required for well-rounded future leaders.
· Who manages the leadership development and succession planning process?
Available for just $89! To purchase: https://www.trainingdr.com/shop/hr-primer-course