The 5 Biggest Succession Planning Mistakes

Book Karin & David Today The 5 Biggest Succession Planning Mistakes Succession planning, carried out nicely, offers you an excellent aggressive benefit. Poorly executed, at best it’s a waste of time, and might wreak serious havoc on long-term performance. Here are a few disturbing phrases, I’ve heard in the last 15 days: Before you can decide WHO is in your succession pipeline, make sure you are clear on WHAT you want. Think in regards to the future and the critical competenciesthat will make that potential. Write them down. Then map your people against those potentialities. Choosing individuals for tomorrow based mostly solely on at present’s efficiency will slow you down. What typically passes for “govt presence” is actually someone who seems and acts like the remainder of you. Be careful. Sure you want poise, efficient communication, and a tidy together look. But it might also be true that the quirky inventive who marches to a unique drum may just who you have to take your technique to the next degree. Too many like minds result in unins pired strategy. If you complete your 9 field succession planning grid and it’s all balding white guys with a dry humorousness in box 9 you clearly have an issue. The query is, what IS that drawback? Take a tough look within the mirror for bias and discrimination. Challenge each other to make it proper. Sometimes, it’s one other problem. It’s the recruiting and management growth that is damaged. You can’t make somebody prepared for the following level by speaking yourselves into it. Or worse, putting variety multipliers on govt compensation which incent them to advertise the various candidate simply to hit a target. The worse thing you can do is pad your “grid” by sliding diverse candidates into blocks the place they don’t belong. Sure, identify alternatives for accelerated progress to make up for lost time. But NEVER promote an unqualified particular person for variety causes. You hurt them, your business, and weaken your diversity technique. You know you could have a true field 9, high potential when every head at the table is chiming in with a resounding “Yes!” Not wanting the opposite means when battle arises. A succession planning dialog with out conflict is ineffective. The best possible talent reviews involve sturdy discussion and energetic debate which ends up in necessary subsequent steps (e.g. “You’ve obtained to know my man higher;” “She needs a stretch task.”) If you begin enjoying games like “I’ll vote in your supervisor if you vote for mine, the enterprise loses. The worst succession planning sin of all is going via the motions, and then reverting to the old patterns “just this time” in terms of promotion. No one will take your succession course of significantly the following time. Don’t short change your talent strategy. The right people, on the right place, at the proper time, will change the game. Be certain you’re ready. If you’re struggling with succession planning, I can help. I’ve facilitated tons of of succession planning discussions over the years from the manager level, by way of merger integration, and on the frontline. Succession planning is price doing well. Please give me a name for a free session, . See Also: How to Navigate Yet Another Office Shake Up (Wall Street Journal) Karin Hurt, Founder of Let’s Grow Leaders, helps leaders around the world obtain breakthrough results, with out shedding their soul. A former Verizon Wireless executive, she has over twenty years of expertise in sales, customer support, and HR. She was named on Inc's listing of a hundred Great Leadership Speakers and American Management Association's 50 Leaders to Watch. She’s the creator of several books: Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates (Harper Collins Summer 2020), Winning Well: A Manager's Guide to Getting Results-Without Losing Your Soul, Overcoming an Imperfect Boss, and Glowstone Peak. Post navigation 6 Comments I like the idea of mapping future competencies and prospects to the person we would like in the position. This is job benchmarking. As Marshall Goldsmith would say, what received you here won’t get you there. Steve, thanks. I discover that works nicely. Great submit about such an essential matter for all organizations! I love your level about cloning as I even have seen this often. I worked with this one leader this previous yr who was having a difficult time relating to the items of certainly one of his group members. The leader couldn’t connect with the very totally different style of the group member and have become unable to see her value in challenging a number of the established order. Eventually he started to open his eyes to her potential and realized that having different perspectives was terribly valuable for his group’s success. Thanks Karin! Terri, Excellent example. Thank you. I’ve seen the “cloning” factor happen greater than once! It’s a lot easier for th e person being replaced to really feel that their values and behavior will be mimicked if they choose a clone to exchange them. Usually, that is the absolute worst considering…too usually, a corporation or team outgrows the leader and that recent perspective is crucial to keep them moving ahead. No cloning zone ahead…. No cloning zone… amen. No matter how good your are, if you’ve been in your function for some time, what your team needs next is new perspective. Your e-mail address won't be revealed. 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