2

Preparing for Succession Planning

 

Getting Started

Preparing for succession planning is similar to starting a new business. You’re going to determine the vision, mission, and goals of this new venture.

You’ll determine the players who can help make this plan a reality. And you’ll determine a step-by-step approach to achieving your goals (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Steps in Creating a Succession Plan

 

The preparation stage is your first opportunity to create a favorable environment for the succession planning efforts through selecting your team and encouraging open, positive communications.

This section outlines the questions you’ll need to ask and the communications systems you’ll want to develop to create a positive environment for your succession planning process.

Determining the Participants

The first priority in the preparation stage is creating your succession planning team. This group will determine the scope of the entire project by deciding how many levels of leadership will be addressed.

It’s vital to the success of the program that you invite members based on the contribution they can bring to the process rather than just paying attention to titles, because your succession plan depends heavily on the commitment and work ethic of this group.

In some organizations the succession planning team is composed only of senior managers. However, if you take the time to expand the team’s composition to ensure diversity and additional viewpoints, you can ensure that you don’t just create carbon copy managers throughout your organization.

These groups should be represented on your succession planning team:

• Senior Management. If your plan is to be successful, it has to have backing from the top management of the organization. That backing can’t just be a nice kickoff talk and pat on the back. It needs to be a commitment that whatever the succession planning team develops will be instituted, respected, and, most of all, maintained. This doesn’t mean that the CEO of the company is expected to sit in on all the meetings of the succession planning team, but they should be updated regularly on the progress of the program.

• Management Levels. Other members of the succession planning team should include highly effective managers in the organization. You’ll want to choose them based on their effectiveness and abilities, not for any reasons based on office politics. Choosing team members who are not open to ideas and communication from employees or who have their own agendas can hurt the performance and the character of the team.

• Key Area Representatives. It’s important to invite representatives from key areas to serve on the team. For example, if your organization is a research and development company, you’ll want to have research department representatives on the team. If you see that major technology changes are going to affect your organization in the coming years, you would do well to include information technology representatives on the team.

• Long-Time Employees. Long-time employees of the company can be valuable additions to this planning team. They bring the history that helps you avoid repeating past mistakes. They’re also some of the best gauges of the culture of the organization. Even if you are trying to initiate change through this program, change without considering where you’ve come from is tricky. You might just find your company going in circles.

• Human Resources Specialists. HR specialists will compile and analyze data as well as maintain this process and ensure its continuation. This fact, together with the expertise HR brings to this project team, makes their involvement from the beginning essential to the success of this project.

This might sound like you’re working toward a huge group, but actually the optimal number of people for the team is seven to 12 members. More than that and you might have trouble getting a consensus; fewer than that and you don’t get enough diverse opinions and backgrounds.

This team will help you get buy-in from the organization. As we noted before, the support of the CEO and top managers is important because their commitment demonstrates to the rest of the company that this is a serious change in the way of doing business and not a passing initiative.

Creating a project team with representatives from different levels and areas throughout the organization will help create support for the plan by sending the message that you are committed to developing a fair and equitable system of promotion for the organization. The diversity, communication skills, and work ethic of the members of this team will not only determine the quality of the succession plan developed but also how well it is accepted.

Team Member Responsibilities

Not everyone you invite to join the team will be willing to invest the time needed. To discover this before it’s too late, send out a list of job requirements for the succession planning team with the invitation.

Here are examples of commitments you might want to request from your succession planning team members:

• Team members will be required to attend a one-hour biweekly update meeting.

• Team members will be assigned tasks as needed and will commit to complete these by a deadline.

• Team members may be called upon to serve as spokespersons for the succession planning efforts to other groups in the organization.

• Team members must have approval from their immediate supervisor to serve on the team.

These criteria, along with any specific company requirements concerning overtime, task delegation, and reporting procedures, should be communicated early in the process to ensure that there are no negative effects on productivity or the team members’ workload.

Once you’ve determined your team members, you’ll want to schedule regular “pulse checks” to ensure that all team members are still engaged in the project.

This is the point where the project manager may find themselves acting in the role of cheerleader, psychologist, or teacher in trying to coordinate the activities of the group.

Extended Project Team

You’ll also want to reinforce the idea in your company that, although this is the official succession planning committee, the actual team spreads much further into the organization.

Everyone in the organization has some involvement in this effort, whether it’s through supplying information, giving comments, or raising questions. This is a company-wide effort because every viewpoint is important and those at every level of the organization have a different perspective.

Here are examples of the roles of the extended project team:

Senior Management

Even those in senior management who are not on the planning team must own this process and be willing to continually communicate and promote this program throughout the company. Senior management’s main roles include:

• communicating the importance and priority that is being given to succession planning

• giving input and providing information to members of the succession planning team

• participating in performance review meetings for senior executives.

Mid-Level Managers

The role of management is a vital one in succession planning. Although senior management may support this process and employees may want to join in, it’s up to management to provide the time, guidance, and opportunities for the individuals they supervise to actively participate in the succession planning program. Managers also provide the most input on what competencies are needed for key positions and which employees have potential to fulfill those needs. Managers’ roles include:

• helping to identify key positions and areas in the organization

• helping identify competencies for key positions

• providing input on what types of learning methods will help develop those competencies

• promoting two-way communications on the succession plan to employees and potential employees

• informing employees of opportunities for leadership roles

• coaching employees on development needed to be considered for leadership roles

• providing employees with opportunities for development

• conducting timely performance reviews and coaching sessions on individual development plans (IDPs)

• completing documentation on succession planning

• evaluating the effectiveness of succession planning initiatives and making recommendations.

Employees

Employees take responsibility for their own development in succession planning. The opportunities will be communicated to them as well as the actions they need to take to achieve their goals, but ultimately the dedication of each individual will determine whether they develop into advanced roles in the organization. Specific responsibilities of the employee are:

• learning about key positions and areas and the associated competencies

• discussing career goals with supervisors

• assessing individual development needs with their supervisor’s assistance

• taking advantage of developmental opportunities

• regularly reviewing IDPs with their supervisor

• being open to feedback and coaching and make adjustments as needed.

Human Resources Department

Although senior management and the succession planning team own this process through the leadership, analysis, and decision making involved, it will be the responsibility of human resources to manage the events and information of succession planning. Specifically, those duties include:

• developing succession planning tools with the team

• providing guidance to managers in identifying key positions and any skill gaps

• assisting managers with the evaluation of succession planning initiatives

• offering assistance to managers for performance reviews and IDP discussions

• communicating opportunities of key positions to employees

• serving as a resource to the succession planning team

• managing the succession planning initiatives, databases, and documentation on an ongoing basis

• providing developmental opportunities by organizing training and other knowledge transfer strategies.

Summary

Today’s workplace is wonderfully diverse and you’ll want to be sure that you have diversity represented on your succession planning team to ensure that no group is excluded from participation in leadership development opportunities.

Without diversity on this team, you could find yourself perpetuating the status quo of the demographics of the leadership team. Without those different backgrounds and perspectives, the company loses the opportunity to develop and grow with the changing workforce.

Getting It Done

During this introductory period your goal is to identify members for your succession planning team. Using the categories and considerations listed in this chapter, ask for recommendations from senior management and respected leaders throughout the company to ensure varying levels of experience, different areas of expertise, and diversity in team membership.

Compile your list of prospective team members but do not move forward until you have determined the job descriptions for them. In the job description, include how often the team will meet; reporting methods; and the fact that team members will serve roles as spokespeople, interviewers, and analysts during the course of this project. Determine any specific considerations for team membership, such as manager approval or overtime considerations. This will be included in the information you distribute when you invite others to be a part of the team.

By creating a job description for succession team members, you’re ensuring that employees will know what will be expected of them and allow them to objectively make the decision on whether they can commit the time necessary for this project.

These steps set you up for the next steps of succession planning, which include confirming your team and your message for the organization.

Sample Team Member Job Description

This position will perform a vital service to ABC by supporting the development of a succession plan to identify and develop future leaders to assume key roles in the organization.

This purpose of this position is to serve as a designer and representative of ABC’s succession plan. The duties of this position include:

• Attend team meetings two times per month.

• Commit to one year of service as team member.

• Read all assigned documentation before each meeting.

• Represent the team as spokesperson at organization meetings and events.

• Perform assigned tasks and research according to deadline.

• Assist in the writing and editing of succession planning documents.

Requirements:

• authorization form signed by manager

• signed team participation agreement

• signed photography release form.