By Natalie Michael, CHRP

Succession management is like networking.  We all know we need to do a better job of it, yet we don’t because we get busy.  But then something happens and we realize we should have been doing something different all along.

Although many executives avoid managing their succession pipeline with diligence, some companies are really on it.  One of my clients is a major hotel chain, and two days after the GM of one of their top properties resigned they had announced his replacement.  A year later, the property is doing better than ever – it’s growing, client satisfaction scores are up, and there is a strong culture fit with the new hire.  This hotel chain is one of the organizations who are turning the challenge of succession into a core competitive differentiator for their business.

As a succession management consultant for the last 10 years, I have gathered a number of tips that genuinely help organizations turn succession into a competitive advantage.  This means that succession practices are helping to speed up succession planning results, are leading to long term strategy execution, and they significantly contribute to better leaders in the organization, and the world.  Follow these strategies and make your business (and life) better now and in the near future.

Tip 1:  Have Teams Pick Successors
When it comes time to pick out your succession talent pool do it as a team.  Asking individual leaders to pick their own successors is like asking people to evaluate the potential of their children.  It’s hard to be objective.  Instead use a talent review committee that has their eye on issues like diversity, future needs of the business, and multi-rater reviews for assessing potential.  It will bring more objectively and credibility to the process.

Tip 2:  Find Opportunities For People to Gain Necessary Experience
Many companies have cut down their middle management layer, but now they are facing a widening talent gap because they don’t have the same depth of talent pool to draw from. Spend time looking at your organizational chart to see if you have “feeder” positions for key jobs.  If you don’t have these positions re-work the organizational chart so people you want to groom for the future can gain the experience they need.

Many organizations do not do this well.  They lack vision and creativity when it comes to structuring job assignments that will build leaders for tomorrow.  They think the future has to look like the present.  Be bold about this.  Consider organizational structures like Interim and Acting positions, vacation coverage assignments, task forces, placements into other departments, transfers, executive exchanges with other companies, and not for profit Board assignments to build skills.

Tip 3:  Make Succession Part of Your Normal Business Process
Succession works best when you give yourself time to develop people, years is much better than weeks, or days.   If you are proactive about finding developmental opportunities and you regularly review people’s progress you are well on your way to building your pipeline.  It does not need to be complicated, yet consistency definitely helps.

Review your succession pipeline at least quarterly and simply ask:  Have we made progress in the last 90 days to develop our key people?  Who is at risk of leaving and what can we do to mitigate this risk? What are the outside forces impacting our business that could derail our best laid plans?

Tip 4:  Link Succession With Career Motivation
If you start your discussions about succession by exploring people’s life and career motivations you will have a much better chance of retaining people down the road.  Also, you may not see one of your key people as a future leader, yet they may see themselves this way.  Sometimes people’s intrinsic motivations count for more than your perceptions so it is worth taking the time to explore where the possibilities lie, who is interested and willing to do the necessary work to progress, and who is committed to your business long term.

Tip 5:  Constantly Recruit
The reality with succession is that people come and go. As part of the succession process ask yourself:  “If this person unexpectedly leaves who are the top three people we are going to call?”  This helps manage your risk and can save you money on search fees.  Incidentally, you can typically use the money from one typical executive search fee to develop one person for three to five years.

Tip 6:  Help People Move ON
Picking a successor is like selling your house.  Once the deal is done, you need to get yourself emotionally ready to let go so you can let the new owners in.
It’s the same for succession planning.   When it is time for an executive to leave its important to honor and recognize that this comes with mixed feelings.  Although they may be ready for a new life or career adventure it still feels bittersweet.  When your entire career has been built on your passions it becomes a core part of your identity, and an individuals’ social network is often wrapped up in their role.  The departing executive likely has a feeling of belonging, community, and influence through work, so moving on will leave a void in their lives.

Sometimes the feeling of loss experienced by the departing executive catches them by surprise.  They have a well thought out departure plan, but when it comes time to implement it the emotions well up.  One of my clients is the CEO of a human resources firm and this was the case.  There was a well thought out transition plan which including a hand off meeting for the new CEO to take over the reins.  In the end, the departing CEO could not attend the hand off meeting for more than ten minutes because they were overwhelmed by sadness, sparked by the thought of leaving the team.  It could have been very awkward, but thankfully the new CEO had high enough emotional intelligence that they were able to honor and celebrate the departing CEO.

As founder and managing partner of The Karmichael Group (karmichaelgroup.com), Natalie Michael is an executive coach and leadership development consultant who specializes in helping leaders deal with increased complexity in their roles. She has worked with leaders from Interior Health, Rogers, Kal Tire, BC Hydro, Versacold, Spectra Energy, GrowthWorks Capital, Easy Financial, and many others. Most recently, Natalie was recognized with the BC HRMA Award of Excellence—HR Innovation for the international leadership development program she co-created for Kal Tire.