Is Your Succession Plan Creating or Controlling Chaos?
Our Workgroup shared stories of succession plans gone bad.
One was told she was in the succession plan. Yay! But then they reorganized. Boo! Then Covid hit. Boo again! Then there was a recovery. Yay! But there was no training for managers. Boo! And then there were staff cuts anyway, and she got laid off. Oh no!
After that, no one believed executives when they said, “Our employees are our most important asset!”
Succession planning used to be simple relay race, for one guy in one lane running one lap handing off just once. But today, it’s for a jostling crowd of people each running different numbers of laps—and changing lanes without warning.
Succession is no longer just about the CEO, it’s about all the managers in a hyper-dynamic environment. It’s complicated and difficult, but it’s necessary to staffing correctly for the jobs you’re going to have in the face of growth, emerging roles, changing roles, as well as for filling planned and unplanned vacancies.
When Will Your Org Chart be Out of Date?
Most org charts are static, showing only how today’s job connect.
A dynamic succession plan fills the chart of the future, with boxes for new jobs and planned vacancies. How you work together—the shape of your chart—might change, too. See Index term 5.2 Organization design and our post “The Dotted Line to Hell.”
The Five Keys to Succession Flexibility
The new challenges of staff planning emphasize—again—the value of having a compelling mission, vision, and plan. Remember the standard definitions of manager and leader:
“A manager helps people work together. A leader inspires people to accept a challenge. They are not different people.”
One: Generalize, Don’t Specialize
While there are immediate benefits to grooming people for one department or unit, it’s better in the long run to give emerging managers opportunities to work in different parts of the organization. That opens succession opportunities for them and for the organization, and it builds the cross-silo connections that bedevil most organizations.
Two: Triple Management Training
In the US in 2023, the average budget for management training decreased to $954 from $1,207 in 2022 (small businesses spent more than twice large businesses). That’s not nearly enough. Listen to this series of podcasts that prove the dollar value of management ability. Not only will you make and save money immediately, but you’ll also have managers who can fill different roles in different functions.
Three: Build Alternative Paths
Not every business needs to grow. They can instead focus on stability or improved profitability or quality. But growth and new product development are necessities for retaining excellent managers.
Four: Don’t Hire Behind Your Need
If you find a great manager who’s also a great fit, consider hiring them even if you’re a year away from having that perfect spot open. If you have a manager development program (like a rotation mentioned earlier), get them in that. Find a project for them.
Yes, that costs a lot, but it doesn’t cost more than not having a good manager when you need them or being rushed and hiring hire the wrong person. My rule of thumb: a bad manager costs at least three times their salary.
Five: Create Graceful Exits
Accept that you might not always have just the right job for a great manager. So, take a lesson from Miron Construction in Wausau, Wisconsin that created the role of “Leader and Life Coach.”
Even if you lose someone because you don’t have a place for them, if you help them no matter what, the odds are very high that they’ll help you later: they’ll be a great customer, advocate, candidate referral source, or vendor. And they’ll return when your paths again align.
Handle your retirees with love and care. Ending one’s work life can be silently traumatic, so helping them find a new path as mentor or volunteer will show everyone you care about them more than their financial value. Many retired managers become board members and active in the community, so that’s good, too.
Are You In a Family Business?
Dynamic succession planning is even more important if you’re in a family business. These hard decisions and big investments are harder because they affect family members. The most common problem is the managing generation: whoever is CEO just refusing to pick and stick to a retirement date.
I can tell you this after many angry and tearful meetings: family member/managers who actively prepare to step aside leave behind the best legacy possible.
