Discovering The World Beyond Succession Planning

Converting an ‘operational’ exercise into a ‘strategic’ imperative

Succession Planning is generally seen as a proactive measure that marginalizes ‘Replacement Planning’ and hedges against the risk of a ‘Leadership Vacuum’ to ensure a steady stride in achieving strategic goals and objectives. Generally, key steps in the respective context are:  
However, it is often tampered by a heavily skewed focus on itself while relying on the efficacy of the following aligned functional processes:
 

• Performance Management
• Reward and Recognition
• Training and Development

This frequently alienates other functional processes necessary for the robustness of talent pipelines that are the backbone of a productive Talent Management system, e.g., Hiring and Orientation, Career Guidance and Progression, Employee Relations and Engagement, Employee Exit Management. Let’s ponder these examples of elements within the realm of Talent Management as follows:

Hiring and Orientation

This is the key entry point into an organization and has a ‘ripple effect’ for the other functional processes in terms of adjusting to the quality of the inducted talent. Mostly, organizations focus on the fulfillment of the available vacancy by emphasizing direct requirements, however, this ‘short-sightedness’ often overlooks the prospect of employing ‘potential successors’ who have the basic ingredients that can be nurtured into the desired leadership traits. This foresight is required by both the HR/Talent Management function and the relevant line manager with unambiguous support of the senior management dedicated to a progressive working environment. Otherwise, the adage of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ will create unhealthy reverberations throughout the organization and exacerbate the leadership crisis by straining the functional processes of Performance Management, Reward and Recognition, and Training and Development. In the words of Stephen Covey, ‘Begin with the End in Mind’.

 

Career Guidance and Progression

There comes a stage in every employee’s work life when he/she starts confronting their ‘career fears’ and indulges in matching their own priorities with those of the organization to see if it makes sense to stay with his/her current employer or look for better prospects elsewhere. Therefore, it becomes imperative for organizations to implement strategies that ensure minimization of talent attrition, especially, among those considered to be top prospects for critical senior positions. This can include timely mentorship from influential senior managers, frequent informal interactions, customizing benefits package within available resources, encouraging productive interaction at suitable professional forums with peers and healthy exposure to growth opportunities. In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ‘The Only Limits to Our Realization of Tomorrow will be Our Doubts of Today’.

Employee Relations and Engagement

Prodigious talent requires a healthy and supportive work environment for sustained excellence. Consequently, High Potentials (HIPOs) can be very demanding and persuasive as they realize the true extent of their worth to the organization. While organizations try to ensure that such ‘prized assets’ are secured against poaching from ravenous competitors and continue steadily on the available career path through insightful engagement strategies; there is also an increased prospect of ‘class warfare’ with respect to ‘talent differentiation’ which can be waged by peers who feel marginalized.  Succession Planning suffers greatly in such situations and often requires rescue through timely intervention from the top in terms of visibly supporting the functional head responsible for cultivating the next crop of suitable leaders for the organization. In the words of Maya Angelou, ‘I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’.

Employee Exit Management

One of the most overlooked functional processes within the realm of Talent Management is the way in which employee departure is handled within the organizations and how it impacts the potential successors. This varies a great deal in accordance with the specific circumstances that prompt the departure of an employee, e.g., someone retiring after a long and distinguished career is generally given a fond farewell, whereas, anyone who is fired may not even be accorded the ‘privilege’ of an Employee Exit Interview/Survey/Questionnaire to gain insightful feedback. Such marked differences in the application of divergent procedures resonate with employees in different ways and need to be handled very delicately since ‘psychological bruises’ are rarely highlighted on any formal forum and tend to linger in whispers within the corridors of power. In the words of Peter Drucker, ‘The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said’.

The aforementioned examples reflect tantalizing challenges that can derail even the best intentioned Succession Planning initiatives. Therefore, it is prudent to do periodic ‘Quality Assurance’ of the Succession Planning process and take necessary corrective/preventive actions in a timely manner followed by an impartial and honest review to curtail any derailment from the strategic imperatives.

A more comprehensive and fruitful strategy would be to embrace and incorporate ‘systems thinking’ in terms of upgrading and synchronizing all the interrelated functional processes, i.e., move from Succession Planning to Succession Management. The following illustration depicts the respective transition:
 

Succession Management (System Oriented)

The efficiency and effectiveness of the functional processes involved at both the aforementioned stages can be refined by utilizing the following Deming Cycle:

 
This should be ultimately taken to an even higher level of excellence where the claims for being ‘world class’ can hold merit. Such a status can be achieved by planting the roots of Succession within the Corporate Values espoused by the organization, which also converts associated risks with having competent leaders into competitive advantages, e.g., talent poaching is embraced instead of being feared since there is no shortage of skilled successors within the ranks. This can be visualized through the following graphic:  
Consequently, an organization should eventually strive to achieve the position of ‘Succession Leadership’ that goes beyond ‘Succession Management’ and is illustrated as follows:
 
Such a status elevates an organization to being a role model not only within its own industry, but also, in the wider corporate world as an enviable focus for benchmarking.

Evolution is a natural phenomenon and organizations that are prepared to timely synchronize their development with the changing times are the ones with the best probability of assuring continued prosperity. While others languish and anguish over the question of survival; progressive organizations driven by enlightened leaders continue to redefine the boundaries of success with the help of capable potential successors. In the words of Tom Peters, ‘Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders’.

Murad Salman Mirza is an innovative thinker and an astute practitioner of areas within and associated with the fields of organizational evelopment, talent management and business transformation. He is globally ranked in 9 areas (HR, Leadership, Culture, Management, Agility, Innovation, Future of Work, Change Management, Customer Experience) by the world's first open platform for Thought Leaders based in the USA that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for ranking to preclude human bias. He has worked in various geographical regions across the world. Connect Murad Salman Mirza