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How to Do Successful Succession Planning
Additional Perspectives on Succession Planning
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© Copyright Carter McNamara,
MBA, PhD
How to Do Successful Succession Planning
Guidelines to Successful Succession Planning
(Various other phrases are used to refer to aspects of succession planning,
including succession management and transition management.)
Management is responsible to ensure that the organization continually has high-quality
operations and employees. One of the most important practices to meet this responsibility
is to conduct successful succession planning. Employees leave their jobs either
on a planned or unplanned basis. Unplanned termination may occur because of
sudden illnesses or death, or poor performance on the part of the employee.
Planned termination usually occurs because the employee is making a career or
life change.
Especially regarding managers in the workplace, demographic trends indicate
that there are not sufficient numbers of next-generation leaders to replace
retiring baby boomers in organizations. Thus, succession management is an increasingly
important priority. Consider the following advice.
Basic Principles of Successful Succession Planning
- Do not wait until the employee will be leaving. Start planning now.
Succession planning is a matter of strong practices in personnel management,
not a matter of sudden crisis management. Start attending those practices
now. - Focus on policies, procedures, and practices, not on personalities.
Succession planning is being able to effectively and promptly re-fill a role,
not replacing a certain person. Be sure all key positions are defined well,
and then look to find the best person to fill the position. Do not look for
someone who is just like, or a lot different than, the previous employee. - Succession planning is the responsibility of the management, not
just the employee.
The best succession planning results from 1) a working partnership between
management and employees to accurately define the employee’s role and
current priorities, and 2) the employee ensuring that management has the information
and resources to refill the role. - Succession planning should be in accordance with up-to-date personnel
policies.
The hiring of new employees must be in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies
to ensure fair, equitable, and legally compliant employment practices. - Quality in managing succession is proportionate to the quality of
the new employee.
The best way for management to promptly convey expectations of high quality
to a new employee is to convey that high quality in how the employee was hired.
The more thoroughly and carefully that management does the succession, the more
likely that the organization will get a new employee who successfully fills
the position for the long term.
Key Practices in Successful Succession of Managers
If the organization has already established strong practices in governance,
leadership, and management, then succession planning often is a matter of using
current practices, rather than establishing many new ones. Key practices include
having:
- A strategic plan that clearly conveys the organization’s mission
and current strategic priorities. Ideally, that plan also includes specific
action plans that specify who is going to do what and by when in order to
address each priority. - Up-to-date and management-approved personnel policies about hiring, supervising
and firing personnel in a fair and equitable manner that complies with employment
laws. - An up-to-date job description for each of the roles, and that explains
the general duties and responsibilities of the positions. - Suitable compensation for the roles (often this is a major challenge for
new organizations because they often have very limited resources). - An annual calendar of the role’s most important activities, for example,
when the person in that role evaluates personnel, does any staffing analysis,
updates job descriptions and participates in important committees. - Regular reports from the person in the role. These reports should include
the trends, highlights, and issues regarding the person’s activities. - Evaluation of the person on an annual basis, including in reference to
the job description and any performance goals established for that role. - Arrangements with the person when he or she goes on vacation so that others
have an opportunity to effectively replace the employee if only for a temporary
period of time. - A complete list of major stakeholders – of people who have an interest
in, or will be influenced by, the employee’s leaving and being replaced
by someone else. Get a list, including contact information and also how each
is approached and who does that, in case that information is needed when/if
the employee leaves. This is true especially if the employee is a high-level
executive. In that case, get a complete list of other stakeholders, for example,
collaborators and suppliers. - Fiscal policies and procedures to ensure strong oversight of finances,
including that financial numbers are correct and tracked accurately, and also
that there are sufficient funds to pay near-term expenses. - At least annual discussions with key employees regarding succession planning,
including how to manage effectively in the employee’s absence. (Be sensitive
in raising this topic with the employee so that he or she is not overly concerned
that executives somehow want a change now). This discussion can be an opportunity
to hear about the employee’s career plans and desires, too.
Additional Perspectives on Succession Planning
Recommended Articles
Form a business succession plan in seven steps
Choose
Tomorrow’s Leaders Today – Succession Planning Grooms Firms for Success
Succession Plan
Succession Planning For Nonprofits: Building Leaderful Organizations
The Strategy of Succession Planning
Improving Leadership Transitions is Not Short-termism
Additional Articles
Learning’s
Place During CEO Transitions
When
Family Businesses Bungle Succession Planning
Succession
Planning
Choose Tomorrow s Leaders Today
Succession
Stories: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Succession Plan
Succession
Planning: Is It a Staffing Matter? No
Why Does Succession Planning Produce So Few Successors?
How to Ensure Your Business Succeeds You
Performance-Based Succession Planning
What to Do When Employees Resign
Succession Planning and Reflection- Who has the time?
Also, consider
Transitioning
to CEO
Transition of Nonprofit Leaders
Although the links in the above section do not mention nonprofits,
their guidelines very likely apply to nonprofits, as well.
Transitioning to New CEO (detailed procedure)
Succession Planning for Nonprofits of All Sizes
resources
from Transition Guides
Succession Planning: Elephant in the Room
Succession
Planning: Is It a Staffing Matter? No
Building Leaderful Organizations: Succession Planning for Nonprofits
Leadership Development and Leadership Change
Also, consider
Transitioning
to CEO
For the Category of Human Resources:
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
