Succession Planning for 2025: It’s Not Just for Emergencies – It’s a Leadership Development Strategy

Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses share a business need: ensuring they have the talent necessary to lead their organizations in the future effectively. One of the most significant contributions a leader can make is ensuring his/her business’ continuity and sustainability by having willing and capable employees fill each key position and plan for doing so when the need arises.

Succession Planning is a:

• The deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed in the future
• A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s current talent pool, and meeting its future needs

Not having a Succession Plan can be costly and sometimes disastrous; it’s expensive to recruit, interview, select, onboard and train a new leader and significant opportunity costs are incurred when a key job is not being performed.

Areas Covered in the Session:-

I. Succession Plan Defined

• A deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed
• A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s current talent pool, and meeting the organization’s future needs

 II. Objectives and  Benefits of Succession Planning

• Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Attract, retain & develop high potentials [HiPos]
• Encourage HiPos development by:
  • Identifying career paths
  • Conducting performance appraisals
  • Providing daily coaching
  • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]
  • Holding Talent Review meetings

III. Tools and Processes Commonly Utilized for Developing and Implementing

• Self-appraisals and career goals
• Performance appraisals, 360 feedback, and ratings
• Assessment instruments
• GE grid
• Individual development plans [IDPs]
• HiPo talent development interventions
• Talent review meetings

IV. What an Organization, its Leaders, and the Program Participants Need to Do To Achieve an Effective Plan

What an organization needs to do:

• Supply funding/budget
• Establish a clear vision and guidance for the program
• Develop a formal, written program
• Announce the objectives of the program to all employees
• Ensure that all leaders and managers support the program

What the leaders need to do:

• Have job descriptions developed for their teams
• Conduct effective, formal performance appraisals
• Identify employee developmental areas
• Share their knowledge and experience
• Involve employees in more of the leader's responsibilities
• Facilitate the completion of IDPs for all Hi Pos

What the program participants need to do:

• Conduct self-appraisals
• Identify their desired career paths
• Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments
• Perform to their capabilities
• Complete their IDPs
• Develop the employees reporting to them – so they have successors

 V. Potential Measures of the Program’s Success

• Whether there is, at least, one successor for each key position
• Having developmental goals and IDPs established for each successor
• Determining how much of their manager’s job the successors can perform
• Determining whether successors can perform their manager’s jobs when they are unavailable and evaluating their performance during those times.

Background:-

The primary objectives for and deliverables of a Succession Planning program are to:

• Sustain the business through a deliberate and systematic effort to anticipate and ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Retain and develop the organization's high potential [HiPos]
• Encourage individual development by:
  • Identifying career paths
  • Conducting formal performance appraisals
  • Providing daily coaching
  • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

During Succession Planning Programs at the macro level, the organization is proactively determining:

• The talent needed in the future
• The talent it has now
• Where there are talent gaps
• The initiatives necessary to close those gaps

At the micro level, the organization is addressing - for each of its key positions - questions such as:

• What would the organization do if it had to fill the position tomorrow
• Whether there is, at least, one successor who could immediately perform the duties of the position
• If there is no successor ready now, what will need to be done to enable the best internal candidate to be ready, and when can he/she be ready
• Can the organization afford to wait, or would it be better to recruit a successor, etc.?

Experience has found the following two processes to be very effective in enabling organizations to have the talent they need when it’s needed:

#1 Performance Management and/or 360 Feedback Processes - through which the organization can:

• Evaluate its employees’ current performance – based on documented, objective performance and achievements
• Assess its employees’ advancement potential
• Determine its employees’ current readiness for advancement
• Obtain from its employees’ self-appraisals identifying their developmental needs and preferred career plans
• Meet its bench strength needs by initiating Individual Development Plans and experiences - at least, for its A Players and/or High Potentials - such as:
  • Special or stretch projects
  • Assignments in other depts./job rotations
  • ‘Try-out/popcorn stand’ slots
  • Mentors
  • Formal training and development initiatives
  • Fast-track programs with exposure to other functions
  • Intense coaching, etc.

• Track their A Players’ and High Potentials’ performance and advancement potential against a Performance-Potential Grid

#2 Talent Review Meetings – during which the executive team in a disciplined fashion:

• Ask each leader to report on the status of the Individual Development Plans for each of their A Players and High Potentials
• Ensure that each A Player and High Potential is receiving regular coaching and is actively involved in opportunities that will help retain them while accelerating their development
• Drives the organization past ‘business as usual’ by ensuring that its future needs for human capital are identified and will be satisfied when the time arrives – as it will

Succession Planning initiatives also increase the engagement and performance of your A Players and High Potentials, the talent your organization will most need in the future.

Why Should You Attend?

The primary objectives for and deliverables of a Succession Planning program are to:

• Sustain the business through a deliberate and systematic effort to anticipate and ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Retain and develop the organization's high potential [HiPos]
• Encourage individual development by:
  • Identifying career paths 
  • Conducting formal performance appraisals
  • Providing daily coaching
  • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

Who will Benefit?

• HR Professionals New to the Field - seeking a comprehensive view of the subject with multiple application initiatives.
• Experienced HR Professionals - seeking a refresher.
• Leaders and Managers - interested in understanding both how a Succession Plan benefits an organization and how to implement one.