Creating a Succession Plan

I just read a "conversation starter" article by McKinsey and Company on the topic of succession planning, focusing on the CEO.

They reiterated again about the importance of this process and bluntly how for the most part how badly it is done.

Badly is described as

• Ignoring it because it causes you to deal with your own "mortality"
• Because in many cases it is left to the CEO who often times hires the replacement in their "own image" rather than dealing with the changing dynamics of the business and the markets
• Because it happens in panic, without a thought out process for what we need when and how
• Because it doesn't take into consideration those internal candidates who are unsuccessful.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The selection and development of your "mission critical" staff is one of the most important roles of the executive team and in larger organizations the board and the executive team. Senior leadership are the guardians of the mission and vision of the organization. As Marcus Buckingham stated- "the most important skill for leadership is clarity", the alignment of strategy with vision.

So ask yourself in your organization; do we have:

• A succession plan for all "mission critical staff"
• A periodic review for evaluating whether the organizations needs or market conditions have changed requiring an update to the profile
• An objective process for evaluating all candidates; internal and external, developed proactively rather than defined by the candidate "pool"

If your answer to one or more of those questions is no this might be a good time to get started on building your process, because as McKinsey and others point out- wrong process= wrong result.

The wrong result is expensive in more ways than one....