Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key leadership positions within the organization.
You lead a very successful team, your abilities have been recognized, and as a result have been offered a promotion.
Is your team ready for you to move on? Will there be an impact to the organization because of your move? Could your promotion be delayed because of not have a successor?
The big question is: What have YOU done to develop, mentor, and groom possible replacements?
Some companies have formal processes in place to fill leadership roles, others have informal processes, and some have nothing in place at all. As leaders, we want to ensure that our key roles, if vacated, will not present issues.
SUCCESSION PLANNING SUGGESTIONS:
- Create mentorships
- Utilize cross training
- Delegate leadership tasks
- Commit to leadership development
- Create and re-visit development plans
- Implement job shadowing
- Conduct talent reviews
- Identify high performers in your department
- Request a list of high performers across the organization
- Assess readiness levels and timeframes ex. now, in 1 year, in 2 years, etc
- Ensure the high performers WANT a leadership position! We once knew a person that was targeted for several positions but had no desire to change roles!
Employees WANT to be developed, and organizations have the need to build bench-strength; having a plan in place sounds like a win-win situation!
QWIKTIPS – Read more Succession Planning Tips
All organizations, no matter their size, need succession planning