Anne Riches: organisational change and leadership development:

Organisational Change & Leadership Development

"It's not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change".
- Charles Darwin

Resource Centre

Are you succession planning? Should you?

Failure to plan for succession has a cost. The cost can be measured in decreased performance and share price, and in lost intellectual capital, not to mention the cost of the hours spent by board members and senior executives in selecting the right leaders in a crisis or unplanned for event.

The cost is even higher if cultural issues are not taken into account. Leaders guide and implement the strategic direction, but its culture is a significant contributor to the achievement of those objectives. Yet organisations, both in the corporate and public sector, show little commitment to focussed, long term succession planning and giving high priority to addressing the cultural elements of the baton change. Arguably, this is contributing to the extraordinary turnover in CEOs.

Succession planning is an essential element of any risk management strategy and responsible governance. Boards and management need to take responsibility for this; focus on what they want succession to achieve; and continuously prepare, preview and assess both internal and external candidates in terms of performance and cultural competence.

Anne's Ten Tips for succession planning

Recognise that organisational culture is a major determinant of whether succession and other major changes, including mergers and acquisitions, succeed or not

Focus primarily on ‘what’ you want to achieve through the succession plan, not ‘who’

If the existing culture supports the strategic direction, make sure the new leader won’t destroy it

If the existing culture needs to change, make sure the new leader, and the board, has the appetite and cultural change competence to do it

Accept that succession planning is going to be expensive in terms of time and cost but it is an essential component of risk management

Continuously prepare, preview and assess candidates – don’t wait until the job becomes vacant

Be careful about setting up dysfunctional competition between the candidates

Focus on both the external and internal market

Bring people from the external market at lower levels as part of the succession plan for the CEO and other top jobs

Prepare for back-filling any gaps if and when unsuccessful candidates leave as part of the plan

Interested in finding out more?

This article is a summary of Anne's chapter from the book The Power Of Culture: Today’s Organisation, to which Anne is a contributing author.

Click here for more information.

Read the media article at the AIM book launch.

Succession planning chapter contents

Introduction
Culture and succession planning
Is succession planning worth it?
Confusion in the corporate sector
   Taking the long term view
The public sector perspective
Planning for succession
   Unplanned openings
   Developing the leadership pool
Conclusion

The Power of Culture: Driving Today's Organisation
Carolyn Barker & Robyn Coy (Ed.s)
AIM Management Today Series
Publisher McGraw-Hill Australia

Click here for more information.