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Step1: Fully engage your stakeholders. There are many stakeholders in succession planning, and it is important that each be brought into the process in a timely manner.
Instead of the chief executive officer and head of human resources presenting their succession plan to the board once a year, I suggest that the process start by engaging the board in the development of a forward-looking skills-and-experience profile for the CEO. The profile should be a living document refreshed as necessary to take changes in strategy or market conditions into consideration. It should also go beyond the traditional position description and delve deeply into both the competencies and experiences required for the next leader. It can then be translated into a dashboard for grading succession candidates in an objective manner.
By engaging the board first in setting the criteria and then in refreshing them each year, you create buy-in and alignment in the eyes of the jury who will select the next leader. You force that decision-making body to think long and hard about what the requirements are for the company’s next leader; often they are different from those for the incumbent. You need a fresh look at the company by a board that is engaged and leading the process year in and year out, not just when a crisis requires it to spring into action.
Step2: Assess your internal candidates. Once your criteria are established, you should get a baseline assessment of your internal candidates. I recommend that the board look wide and deep. The entire top team should go through the executive assessment process first–ideally by an outside firm–so that you don’t single out favorites and start a destructive horse race. The next layer of management should also be assessed–or, in very large companies, a pool of high potentials from that next layer down, where a dark-horse candidate can often emerge. Looking at these different layers also exposes the board to its C+2 and maybe even C+3 executives. In some instances this helps boards realize how shallow or deep the talent bench is and provides the impetus to respond accordingly.
Step3: Conduct a stress test and simulation. As in much in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to executing succession plans. Once the criteria for the next CEO have been developed, it is important that you measure your internal candidates against them across two time frames: a short-term emergency time frame and a more planned succession in the medium or long term.
Here are the kinds of questions you must have answers for: First, is there an emergency candidate who can take the reins for a time if the CEO were to leave tomorrow? This is often the CFO, COO or a board member. Second, whom do we have to invest in today so that he or she will be prepared tomorrow? Third, has the company developed a team strong enough to ease the transition to a new CEO? And finally, is there in place a seasoned chairman or lead director who is willing to coach and mentor a new CEO?
In some cases, it may become apparent there are no internal candidates about whom the stakeholders are optimistic. Then the task becomes quite different. Now there is obviously real risk to the company, and a plan for recruitment and development needs to quickly be put in place. Boards faced with this dilemma are advised to go out and recruit new bench strength below the CEO level. Bringing in a potential new CEO at a lower level allows the board to view him or her at work for a period of time. Should such an individual prove capable as a successor, his or her tenure in the company reduces the riskiness of the transition.
Step4: On-board the successor. The most neglected step when it comes to succession planning is preparing for what happens after the successor is named. Making succession a sink-or-swim shock is simply too risky to endure. there is no such thing as a “ready now” candidate. Anyone named as a successor has learning to do and mistakes to recover from. Part of the succession-planning process must be to take advantage of the time between the announcement and the acceptance of the top job so that the leadership can address as many needs as possible. Crucial support must be provided–a good team, wise and accessible mentors, executive coaching and a feedback-rich environment–to create a setting in which the new CEO can be the most effective.
Boards can–and really must–play an important role in succession planning. Directors must be aggressive and unwavering in their efforts to make the process as real as possible. Honest external evaluation of current talent and a system to develop a rich talent pipeline are just two of the areas where diligent board involvement can make a big difference. In this effort, directors have to remember that the search for a “ready now” candidate is a fool’s errand.
Similarly, what is most critical is creating and continually refocusing succession on the moving target of the knowledge, skills and abilities the next CEO will need in order to effectively lead. Finally, directors need to design their succession planning not just to choose the new executive but also to provide support as he or she finds his or her legs in the new role.
I am Agree With Expert Answers
1. Change the name of the process to from Succession Planning to Succession Development.
Plans do not develop anyone — only development experiences develop people. We see many companies put more effort and attention into the planning process than they do into the development process. Succession planning processes have lots of to-do’s — forms, charts, meetings, due dates and checklists. They sometimes create a false sense that the planning process is an end in itself rather than a precursor to real development. Many humans fall into the same trap regarding physical fitness. We have may have fantastic plans in place to lose weight. We may be very proud of our plans , which include detailed daily goals for diet, alcohol consumption, and exercise. And if our execution were half as impressive as our planning, we would be very svelte. Our focus should be on weight loss, not planning for weight loss.
2. Measure outcomes, not process
This change of emphasis is important for several reasons. First, executives pay attention to what gets measured and what gets rewarded. If leadership development is not enough of a priority for the company to establish goals and track progress against those goals, it will be difficult to make any succession planning process work. Second, the act of engaging with senior executives to establish these goals will build support for succession planning and ownership for leadership development. Third, these results will help guide future efforts and mid-course corrections.
The metrics a company could establish for Succession Development might include goals like the percent of executive level vacancies that are actually filled with an internal promotion vs. an external hire, or the percent of promotions that actually come from the high-potential pool. Too often, we find companies measure only the percent of managers that had completed succession plans in place.
3. Keep it simple.
We sometimes find companies adding excessively complex assessment criteria to the succession planning process in an effort to improve the quality of the assessment. Some of these criteria are challenging even for behavioral scientists to assess, much less the average line manager. Since the planning process is only a precursor to focus the development, it doesn’t need to be perfect. More sophisticated assessments can be built into the development process and administered by a competent coach.
4. Stay realistic.
Following are two classic examples how succession plans may lack realism:
The head of engineering is a high performing leader who has the potential to be COO. She has always been in an engineering role. If she had sales experience, she would be even more ready to be the COO so her development plan is written to include a job move to be head of sales. However, this company would never take the risk of putting someone without sales experience in the top sales job — so her development plan perpetually says, “move to a sales job” even though that will never happen.
The CFO is a high performing leader who has passed all the assessment criteria to be a high potential, ready-now candidate for the CEO job. He is told he is the top candidate. However, the CEO can’t stand the guy, and as a result, he will never get the job as long as that CEO has a say in the matter.
While development plans and succession charts aren’t promises, they are often communicated as such and can lead to frustration if they aren’t realistic. Bottom line, don’t jerk around high performing leaders with unrealistic development expectations. Only give the promise of succession if there is a realistic chance of its happening!
(1) Internal promotion.
(2) Internal Transfer
(3) Designation improved.
(4) Clear cut Organogram.
(5) Confirmed Job grade.
(6) Identified Qualification and skills for jobs.
(7) External recruitment.
Thanks for inviting. I agree with others and wish to add that every employee should be given fair chance to grow and work in an organization. Boss should teach and coach his sub-ordinate so that he can assume higher responsibilities.
To develop a succession planning it has to have the following steps.:
1. Determine the type of plan.
2. Put a succession-planning team together.
3. Identify the main factors that will influence your plan.
4. Link your succession plan to your organization’s overall strategic plan.
5. Identify sources for successor candidates.
6. Shape action plans.
Determine the way or the type of your plan and shape actions on it.
Succession planning is the process of selecting the right candidate to have the best future for the organization. We consider following steps for succession planning:
Identify the critical positions in the organization.
Determine what kind of skills in those positions need
Find and assess potential successor, the most obvious candidate to ceate working process.
Involve managers and leaders throughout the organization to know where the hidden talent lies.
Commit to develop an internal talent and monitor the progress.
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