Succession Planning for 2024: It's Not Just for Emergency - It's a Leadership Development Strategy

Recorded Webinar | Pete Tosh | From: Aug 02, 2024 - To: Dec 31, 2024

Training Options & Pricing

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Recording     $199
DVD     $209
Recording + DVD     $369
Transcript (Pdf)     $199
Recording & Transcript (Pdf)     $359
DVD & Transcript (Pdf)     $369


Description

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 ensuring 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:

  • 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 is 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.

Learning Objectives:-

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]

Areas Covered:-

  • Succession Plan Defined
    • A deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed
    • A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s current talent pool, and meeting the organization’s future needs
  • Objectives and  Benefits of Succession Planning
    • Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions
    • Attract, retain & develop high potentials [HiPos]
    • Encourage HiPos development by:
      • Identifying career paths
      • Conducting performance appraisals
      • Providing daily coaching
      • Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]
      • Holding Talent Review meetings
  • Tools and Processes Commonly Utilized for Developing and Implementing
    • Self-appraisals and career goals
    • Performance appraisals, 360 feedback, and ratings
    • Assessment instruments
    • GE grid
    • Individual development plans [IDPs]
    • HiPo talent development interventions
    • Talent review meetings
  • What an Organization, its Leaders, and the Program Participants Need to Do To Achieve an Effective Plan
    • What an organization needs to do:
      • Supply funding/budget
      • Establish a sharp vision and guidance for the program
      • Develop a formal, written program
      • Announce the objectives of the program to all employees
      • Ensure that all leaders and managers support the program
    • What the leaders need to do:
      • Have job descriptions developed for their teams
      • Conduct effective, formal performance appraisals
      • Identify employee developmental areas
      • Share their knowledge and experience
      • Involve employees in more of the leader's responsibilities
      • Facilitate the completion of IDPs for all Hi Pos
    • What the program participants need to do:
      • Develop the employees reporting to them – so they have successors
      • Complete their IDPs
      • Perform to their capabilities
      • Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments
      • Identify their desired career paths
      • Conduct self-appraisals
  • Potential Measures of the Program’s Success
    • Whether there is, at least, one successor for each key position
    • Having developmental goals and IDPs established for each successor
    • Determining how much of their manager’s job the successors can perform
    • Determining whether successors can perform their manager’s jobs when they are unavailable and evaluating their performance during those times.

Why Should You Attend:-

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 highly effective in enabling organizations to have the talent they need when it is needed:

  • 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.
  • Talent Review Meetings – during which the executive team in a disciplined fashion:
    • Ask 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.

Who Should Attend:-

  • HR Professionals New to the Field - seeking a comprehensive view of the subject with multiple application initiatives
  • Experienced HR Professionals - seeking a refresher
  • Leaders and Managers - interested in understanding both how a Succession Plan benefits an organization and how to implement one