Your Guide to a Comprehensive Succession Planning Strategy
Create Success Profiles for Critical Roles
Understanding your critical roles—and their context—before slating successors is essential.
When deciding which roles to focus on, ask: where will an unexpected vacancy be most disruptive? Which roles are likely to have a disproportionate impact on defining or executing the business strategy? Many organizations start with succession planning for the C-suite alone, then scale the process to include other leadership roles as the organization grows. For startups and other small organizations, the CEO role would be an ideal starting point. Selecting roles deliberately can help to prevent the process from becoming unwieldy.
More than half of all companies do not have even a contingency plan in place for CEO succession.4
Creating success profiles for critical roles can help codify what changes and challenges your organization expects to face and what competencies will be needed to address them. In defining essential job competencies for each key position, differentiate between aspirational and realistic goals. For instance, if your culture is highly traditional but you're seeking a change agent, prioritizing innovation at the exclusion of other skills may be counterproductive.
Don't overlook the team as a source of input for understanding a critical role. The future leader's direct reports understand the day-to-day context, challenges, and leadership skills needs associated with the role better than anyone. Consider interviewing, surveying, or conducting focus groups with team members about success factors, communication needs, and decision-making. They'll provide invaluable insights that complement input from senior stakeholders and incumbent leaders.