Growing a business is no easy task. When you feel like you have hit a sweet spot - everyone is doing what they are supposed to and processes are running as they should - it is easy to get complacent. The problem is that, even if you are cruising on calm seas for the moment, a storm could be just around the corner.
You can never stop thinking about what is next for your organisation. Most importantly, what is your succession management plan?
The succession planning gap
In a global survey of 2,300 directors conducted by KPMG in 2017, only 14% of directors said they had a detailed board succession plan in place. It seems that, even though businesses are focusing on new strategies due to adjusting budgets and new-age employee engagement, they are failing to answer the most important questions: is the next generation of leaders ready to take over when the current ones retire?
Good succession management is about figuring out the estimated time of arrival of an employee to a specific position within the company. The trick is to work out the distance of successors from target positions, and the speed at which they are travelling, in order to estimate their time of arrival - and prepare their development plan to get there.
Remember: it is only when you have mapped out a person's trajectory that you can give them the tools to get there. Succession planning and development conversations go hand in hand.
Factor 1: Ability
Does the person have the ability to perform in the target position? You need to look at their performance, their behavioral fit to the next level, their functional and business knowledge, and their experience to determine their gap and understand what development to prioritise.
Ability is not just about current performance. It is about whether the person has the behavioral range, cognitive capacity, and domain knowledge to succeed at the next level of complexity. Many high performers at one level struggle at the next - not because they lack effort, but because the role requires a fundamentally different capability profile.
Factor 2: Aspiration
Does the person aspire to move to the target position? It is all very well figuring out that your employee can move - but do they want to? If your succession plans happen in isolation - without input from your employees about their career goals - you could find yourself shocked by their answer when the time comes to move them.
Aspiration is often overlooked in succession planning. Organisations spend significant time assessing who is capable of moving up, but far less time understanding who actually wants to. The result is succession plans that look good on paper but fall apart when the moment of truth arrives.
The aspiration blind spot
Many organisations discover too late that their identified successor does not want the role. Career conversations that explore aspiration - not just capability - are essential to building a succession plan that will actually work when you need it.
Factor 3: Agility
Do they have the emotional intelligence, institutional knowledge, and have they had enough time in their current position to move to the next position? Agility is the speed at which a person can close the gap between where they are and where they need to be.
A person with high ability and high aspiration but low agility may still be the right successor - they just need more time and more targeted development. Understanding agility helps you set realistic timelines and design the right development path.
Balancing data and opinion
Succession planning should be a balance between data and opinion. The recommended process involves a discussion between the leaders of each function and your talent team, during which they can provide input about successors in a structured way - after all, the opinion of the succession owner (the person who will make the decision to hire) is very valuable.
Opinion alone is subjective and should always be supported by good data. The best succession planning processes provide a dual view of succession readiness, utilising both data and opinion to help move your succession planning beyond the binary 'Ready Now, Ready Later' model.