THE INS AND OUTS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING Association of Catholic Publishers

THE INS AND OUTS OF
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Association of Catholic Publishers
September 4, 2014
 Carol Fowler
 clfowler5455@gmail.com
 312-320-9346 (Cell)
What is succession planning?
 A process for identifying and developing internal people
to fill key leadership positions in an organization.
 Replacement planning for key roles in a narrow sense is
at the heart of succession planning
 Broadly, it is a process that ensures staff is recruited
and developed for ongoing staffing purposes.
WHY BOTHER?
 Small and medium organizations are often not
adequately prepared for business succession.
 We rely on staff to make the mission happen
 Baby boomer reality!
DISCUSSION
 Given your personal experience and experience in your
publishing organization, what are the key competencies
for major leadership roles in your organization?
 What could be some helpful developmental experiences
for those who might be slated for significant leadership
positions in your organization?
KEY PROCESSES
 Choosing the right employees
 Developing employees for key roles
PROCESSES AND PRACTICES
 Identify key roles
 Define competencies and motivational profile
 Assessment with a future orientation
 Identify pools of talent
 Develop staff
 CANDOR
 Differentiation
Related processes of planning
 Business Exit Planning
 Integration of performance management and succession
planning
 Planning in family businesses
STEPS IN SUCCESSION PLANNING
 Capacity and needs assessment
 Develop and implement the plan
 Monitor and manage the plan
SUCCESSION STRATEGIES
(OPM.gov.)
 Identify recruitment strategies
 Identify retention strategies
 Identify development/learning strategies
 Link to HR practices of performance management,
compensation, recognition, recruitment and retention,
workforce planning
EFFECTIVE SUCCESSION PLANNING
HAS CLEAR OBJECTIVES (Kesler,
2002)
 Identify those with potential for greater leadership
 Provide critical development experiences
 Engage leadership in supporting such experiences
 Build a good database to make better staffing decisions
FIRST STEPS
 Reasonable financial stability of the organization is in
place
 Strategic plan and articulated mission, vision and values
are in place
 CEO is engaged, supportive and involved
 Performance management system is in place
 (Compass Point)
EMERGENCY SUCCESSION
PLANNING
 Identify critical executive functions and responsibilities
 Document key relationships, contacts and processes
 Readily available file for key documents, strategic
plans, operational plans, calendars, activitiesd, etc.
 Create policy and procedure for immediate
implementation when necessary
 Good succession planning should reduce the number of
times an emergency succession plan needs to be
implemented.
Legal Note:
 A succession plan is not a guarantee of future
employment but rather a developmental plan to
prepare staff for possible opportunities and
organizational needs.
DISCUSSION:
 Can you think of some examples of times in your
current organization or a different organization when
lack of succession planning created a major problem?
For example: perhaps there was an untimely death of
a leader or unexpected long term illness in which that
person had key processes and knowledge “in her head?”
BENEFITS OF SUCCESSION
PLANNING
 Aligns staff and staff development with strategic plans
of the organization
 Builds leadership capacity of staff
 Aligns staff development with Board and C-Suite goals
 (The Fogarty Group)
HOW LEADERS DEVELOP
 Coaches, mentors and bosses
 Peer groups including professional organizations
 Formal training and leadership development programs
 Topical workshops
 (Nonprofit Leadership Development: A Model for
Identifying and Growing Leaders. Bonner and Obergas)
DISCUSSION:
 What are some key challenges to effective succession
planning?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 A Succession Planning Checklist – Compass Point
 Nonprofit Leadership Development: A Model for
Identifing and Growing Leaders. Bonner and Obergas
 Emergency Succession Planning Template
 Leslie Bonner, Bonner Consulting
 Gay Fogarty, The Fogarty Group
 Office of Personnel Management opm.gov
Bibliography cont.
 Succession Planning – HR Toolkit, HR Council of Canada
hrcouncil.ca
 Leading Organization Design by Gregorgy Kesler
 GOOGLE
 Winning by Jack Welch
 Advantage by Patrick Lencioni