Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses alike share a business need - ensuring that they have the talent necessary to effectively lead their organizations in the future. One of the most significant contributions a leader can make is insuring his/her business’ continuity and sustainability - by having employees who are willing and capable of filling each key position with a 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.

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 the organization would 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 is able to:

• 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:

• asks 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 levels of engagement and performance of your A Players and High Potentials - the talent your organization will most need in the future.