Leaders Falling Off the Radar Screen

February 10, 2010 / L2L Contributing Author / Comments Off

While walking to work on a cold and sunny December morning in Southeast Wisconsin, I was hit by a car. It had snowed 10 inches and rather than jaywalking as I normally might do, I decided to be obedient and cross the street at the crosswalk.

Have you ever heard the saying that “No good deed goes unpunished? Hmmm…sometimes that rings true…

The driver of the auto was making a right on red but failed to first come to a stop. He was looking left when he entered the intersection and proceeded to knock me down with his two ton car. I ended up with a broken tibial plateau and a torn rotator cuff, each requiring surgery. I was on crutches for 10 weeks. Fortunately I was not permanently disabled or worse, killed.

So what if I hadn’t been able to return to work? My company had a Succession Plan in place for not only me but other key associates. But what if we didn’t have one that identified and prepared replacements for key employees in the event any of them became permanently incapacitated, passed away or left the organization?

Radar Love

The best HR coach I ever had was a grey haired woman named Mildred with a mouth like a sailor but the intelligence of a seasoned business leader. Mildred coached me to be prepared in the event a key associate left our organization. She would talk about what would happen if John or Mary un-expectantly “fell off the radar screen,” meaning, what would happen if a person became permanently injured, died, retired or just un-expectantly left the organization? This was before most progressive companies had formal Succession Plans.

Today, successful companies generally have Succession Plans that are not static. They are created, reviewed, updated, and recalibrated on a regular basis. It’s not just a bunch of charts that indentifies the leadership team’s replacements in the event any of them “drop off the radar screen.”

Benefits

A formal Succession Plan accelerates preparing employees ready for advancement to assume leadership roles, counters the difficulty of recruiting employees externally, focuses on leadership continuity, provides effective monitoring and tracking of employee proficiency levels and skill gaps, creates a leadership model, smoothes business continuity and improves staff morale.

Planning

Prior to developing the Plan, organizations need to understand their long-term objectives along with determining workforce trends and potential turnover. They also must commit to the process. Pitfalls of ensuring success include a lack of written skills and competencies for key positions, long wait for movement/promotion of key personnel and lack of regular follow-through with development plans for key associates.

Components

Succession Plans not only include an emergency back-up list, but more importantly identify high potential employees by utilizing a 9-Square Chart ranking employees based on their performance and potential, a bench strength chart identifying associates that have the potential to move up two or more levels in the organization, and a replacement planning chart listing potential replacements for key positions indicating their current readiness status. In addition, training programs are develop for high potentials and those identified on the replacement chart which may include new work assignments, 360-degree assessments and feedback sessions identifying strengths and development areas, and specific training needed to continually “Sharpen the Saw.” Training plans are customized to each individual.

As Ken Blanchard, developer of the Situational Leadership II model states, “Different strokes for different folks, different strokes for the same folks, depending on the task.”

In addition to identifying high potentials, the 9-Square Chart highlights those individuals that may be in the wrong job or as one of my former CEOs said, “. . . they need to traded.” So the process may also include pruning the tree of those employees that are not a good fit in the organization.

Eyes on the Horizon

Symptoms of companies needing a formal Succession Plan include not being able to quickly respond to sudden losses of key talent, are experiencing high levels of key employee turnover and lengthy searches to fill key positions, workers’ perception that promotional decisions are made unfairly or capriciously, or diverse employees are underrepresented in key positions.

A well thought out Succession Plan process, implementation and follow-through allows for:

An ongoing supply of high potential employees capable to step into key positions;
A pool of desirable candidates who are integrated into the organization;
A flow of capable people through various departments;
Alignment of the future needs of the company with the availability of appropriate resources within the company;
Positive goals for key personnel encouraging them to stay with the organization; and
A continued supply of capable successors for key positions.

Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Strong agreement from the CEO & executive staff is needed when designing the planning process. For instance, the plan needs to meet the organization’s specific requirements; cross functional leaders need to be involved in developing and implementing the process; necessary key competencies need to be quantified; the identification of skill-set competency assessment tools; and all the while ensuring coaching, mentoring, training, and recruiting methods are incorporated to match personnel requirements and future needs.

Succession Planning ROI includes lower attrition of key personnel, identification of high potentials and key replacements, reduced hiring costs, more time to fill key positions, and the ability to increase diversity in key leadership roles.

You don’t want leaders falling off your radar screen with no qualified backups ready to take over. That’s like stepping in front of an oncoming car!

Does your organization have a strategic Succession Plan? What would happen if one of your key leaders left the organization today? Are you experiencing above average turnover of high potential employees? Are diverse employees fairly represented in your leadership? Does it take several months to fill key positions? What percentage of leadership roles are filled internally? Do you know the cost of having a key position empty for any length of time?

Email to a friend

Image Sources: aefreemart.com, countyofberks.com, photobucket.com

Mentoring: Your Secret Weapon (linked2leadership.com)
Succession Planning – How To Manage It (myventurepad.com)
Leading for Success in a Changing World- Offering Value (myventurepad.com)

Posted in Leading & Developing Other Leaders, Leading Change, Professional Development

recalibrate PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Leaders Falling Off the Radar Screen

While walking to work on a cold and sunny December morning in Southeast Wisconsin, I was hit by a car. It had snowed 10 inches and rather than jaywalking as I normally might do, I decided to be obedient and cross the street at the crosswalk.