Making the case for succession planning
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Many managers avoid succession planning – the process of identifying key people and making sure that there are successors lined up in case they move on or something happens to them. It’s not the most exciting topic; sometimes it can feel like it is form-filling for the sake of it; it’s can involved completing a very complicated Excel spread-sheet; the situation changes the moment you’ve completed it; and it can make people worry that they could be raising expectations they can’t meet!
So is it worth doing?
As you’d expect – we think it’s definitely worth doing. And the great news is it doesn’t have to be over complicated or over sophisticated – it can be relatively quick and painless.
In future blogs we’ll look at mechanics of succession planning – but for now, let’s look at why it’s important:
- It creates stability. In the 21st century there is a lot of change to handle. You need to maintain the performance in your team – so anything you can do to avoid unplanned upsets in your team reduces stress and helps keep on target! Good succession planning can assist with that by helping you to be realistic about your team members’ futures.
- It allows you to develop people inside the organisation. Talented people inside the organisation are a very valuable resource. They are much quicker to move into roles – no 3-month notice period. They’re often known quantities, and they hit the ground running because they know the organisation. And importantly, filling jobs by promoting internal people, motivates and encourages everyone as they see the opportunities to drive their careers inside the organisation.
- It allows you to build your own personal talent pool. It’s important to be able to attract talented people to work for you – really good managers know many talented people across the business and enlist their support to help with their projects. Talented people are less likely to work for and stay with someone who is very random in their support of succession and career – they often need to see how working for an individual will help them on their career journey. By getting a reputation for helping people to grow and progress, you will attract high calibre people to work for you.
- The organisation is constantly changing. The shape of your team needs to flex and adjust to meet that changing landscape. If you plan that change it will be a lot less stressful than having to suddenly react to someone leaving or the need to shift people into different roles.
- It’s in your interests to do it. If you’re critical to the performance of your team and you have no one lined up to replace you, people will be less likely to offer you secondments, projects or jobs that mean you’ll need to leave the position. The more confident your manager feels that your role can be covered – the more opportunities you’ll win. And if you make yourself easy to extract from your current role, you’ll find you win roles ahead of better suited – but harder to extract – people competing for the same opportunity.
If you aren’t doing succession planning right now, make a start. There are two key questions to answer – “Do I have any people who would cause me problems if they left, because of their expertise, knowledge of systems, or contacts?” And “Do I have a replacement for myself lined up if I want to extract myself from the team?”