In any organization there has to be a well thought out and systematic plan (with a timeline) for what I call “building the pipeline” of Leaders to eventually replace Leaders at all levels of the organization. This plan, at certain points in time, needs to be shared with each of the junior Leaders (communication, communication, communication). This should not be a secret and not a shock when promotion comes (or does not come). This is also part of formal/informal performance review communication, which I’ll leave to comment on in another post.
Not only are you looking to the future, but you also have a back-up plan for contingency situations. Life happens, people leave the company, illness strikes and there must be a plan in place to ensure the smooth transition of people. I think that this is one strength that the military has down pat: Personnel succession planning. People are without a doubt your most valuable asset and one way of taking care of them is planning for the future (near/short/long-term).
Succession planning is NOT left solely to your Personnel (Human Resources section/department). Leaders are pro-active at every level of the organization and should be doing their own internal planning for the future and working in conjuction with HR.
Case in point was when I was working with a firm in the private sector and one of their key “senior” Leaders (decision maker) unfortunately was in a fatal car crash. This created chaos within the company and their operations came to a complete halt, primarily due to not having a succession plan.
Does your company have a personnel succession plan and is it communicated at all levels?
© 2009 Ben Larson (aka TheLeaderWay). All Rights Reserved.
