The Ultimate Guide to Succession Planning

在我大学毕业的第一笔工作之一中，我的经理承认我的职业成长“不是优先事项”。我知道我没有担任领导角色，需要继承计划，但是该录取仍然使我震惊。没有支持职业发展，我最终离开了公司。bob全站app

This situation may seem dramatic, but it points to the importance of having a succession plan in place. Of course, senior leadership roles take precedence because these can create a larger vacuum if the position is left unfilled. But succession planning can (and should) extend to all leaders across a company.

制定继承计划可以使您的公司在领导者辞职或接受晋升时进行平稳过渡。bob全站app它可能会对员工士气产生重大影响，并可以将您的团队定位为熟练地应对未来的业务挑战。

But you don't want to wait until you absolutely need a successor. At that point, you're scrambling and may choose the wrong person. Let's look at the ins and outs of succession planning so your team is prepared for any transition.

什么是继任计划？

Succession planning is a strategic process for identifying high-potential employees and taking steps to prepare them for future leadership positions. It helps your business develop and retain the talent pipeline so you can quickly fill vacant leadership roles.

一些继承计划向前介绍12到36个月的领导者退休，下台，进步或离开时。其他人，包括首席执行官继承计划，探讨了未来的数年，以确保接下来的几代领导者。稍后，我们将介绍C套件过渡的细节。但是，所有继承计划都在进行前进并确定您想要的继任者中有类似的好处。

Why is succession planning important?

In the全球领导预测2021report, 11% of surveyed organizations said they have a "strong" or "very strong" leadership bench — the lowest reported in the past decade.

The benefits of strong leadership are apparent. It improves employee turnover, ensures the execution of goals, and contributes to the company's survival. So if a crucial leader leaves, a succession plan can help ensure the role is filled and your company continues to thrive. But that's not the only upside.

Benefits Of Succession Planning

• 寻找和发展人员担任未来的领导角色，使您可以从内部提升。这些员工具有外部雇员缺乏的组织知识和内部关系。
• Letting employees know that you're investing in them is a huge morale boost. It can also increase motivation and loyalty to the company.
• Training employees for leadership roles forces you to identify the skills, knowledge, practices, and relationships needed for each role in your succession plan. This can attract new talent, retain current employees, and keep you competitive.
• 雇用高度专业的角色并不容易。继任计划可帮助您在替换当前员工时找到具有独特能力的人。

Currently,leaders looking to develop skillsoutside of their daily work want more coaching and development assignments, in addition to assessment and formal training. Succession planning is the perfect way to formalize training for both present and future leaders.

继任计划最佳实践

继任计划并不简单。但如果你考虑到der these best practices as you choose successors, your company will be well-equipped to manage transitions and unexpected changes.

Formalize a Plan

The earlier you set a succession plan, the better. You don't want to risk a leadership vacuum that leaves teams feeling unsupported. That can quickly waterfall into an entire team or department leaving, especially if the leader is particularly strong and has a close relationship with their direct reports. Once you have a succession plan, write it down. Then, make it clear there's a plan in place for when the inevitable transitions happen.

Stay Dynamic

Volatility is common at every company. People move cities, find new jobs, and retire. Your succession plan should be able to adapt to change. Instead of creating a plan and only revisiting it when the time comes to fill a role, see the plan as an evolving process that needs to be constantly updated.

Evaluate Talent

Part of a fluid succession plan is taking the time to assess employees' interests, skills, performance, and opportunities. This can be done through 360-degree feedback, weekly check-ins with managers, informal training, or tools like the nine-box grid. The goal is to get an idea of people's strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and growth opportunities so you know who may be the right fit for leadership roles.

Communicate Openly

Communication builds trust, which makes it easier to set expectations and ensure everyone is on the same page. As you build a succession plan, have honest conversations with employees. Find out where people want to be, and tell them where they're currently at. The whole point is to make your plan a reality, and successors will appreciate your openness when the time comes to offer them a role.

优先考虑多样性和包容性

Companies withwomen in leadership rolesexperience almost 50% higher profit and share performance. And since women, especially women of color, have been most受大流行的影响, it's wise to consider gender ratios in any succession plan — including the 2SLGBTQI+ communities.

Succession Planning Example

When asked, a whopping 61% of organizations said they didn't have a direct report who couldstep into their CMO roletomorrow. That's a bad sign for C-suite succession plans. Without a strategy to replace leaders, a company can quickly go downhill.

To avoid chaos, here are a few examples of how succession planning can play out:

McDonald's Smooth CEO Succession

How does a multi-billion dollar company thrive after losing two CEOs in one year? They had a concentrated effort to develop high-potential employees and created a backup plan for their succession plan.

Coca-Cola's Failed CEO Succession

The repercussions of a poor succession plan can affect a company for decades. See the implications of Doug Ivester's term as CEO and the stakeholder concerns that caused his resignation after two years.

继任计划步骤

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1. Make a plan for your plan.

This step is all about defining the goals of your succession plan and aligning with everyone involved. For some companies, this will mean meeting with your board to outline strategic priorities. For others, it will require meeting with senior leaders to define what you're looking for in a successor.

You'll be ready to move on to the next step once you:

• Define the roles, skills, core competencies, and experience required for a successor.
• Gather information and feedback on the above from your team or experts within your network.
• Forecast your company's needs. Consider turnover trends, retirement dates, compensation strategies, and management training.
• 更新您的职位描述和任何领导模型，以反映您收集的信息。您想在寻找候选人之前清楚自己的期望。

2. Identify potential candidates.

Using the succession profiles and job descriptions you've created, you're ready to seek out candidates. Make sure your approach is easy to repeat and introduces as little bias as possible. It can be helpful to get support from the HR team, who can share the tools needed to engage candidates and help facilitate the process.

To identify candidates, you can:

• 寻找发展他人，遵循项目，采取行动支持公司愿景并具有强大领导能力的领导者。bob全站app
• Get insight into each candidate's goals, disposition, and potential by holding interviews, creating surveys, and setting up focus groups.
• 向人们询问如何提高继承和领导才能获得买入并发现谁参与该过程的想法。

3. Inform candidates.

There's a great debate on whether or not companies should let employees know they're succession candidates. But informing people of their potential will not only motivate them—it will prevent them from wondering about their future with the company. A great candidate may jump ship if they're in the dark and think they can find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Instead, communicate your intentions about the positions, people, and planning. Just keep your expectations incredibly clear on the included roles and people involved.

4. Set up professional development efforts.

您的公司可bob全站app能有针对入职和培训员工的计划。但是，发展是为了创造机会，让人们获得超越当前角色和技能的经验。对于可以陷入专业筒仓的团队成员而言，这一点尤其重要。

一旦你确定候选人要猛击op, you'll want to figure out the specific skills and knowledge they'll need to move to the next level. This often involves anindividual development plan, continuous feedback, mentoring or coaching, formal training, and open conversations between the employee and their manager.

5.进行试运行。

随着潜在的继任者的增长，他们将成为领导角色的真正竞争者。这是开始试验以测试他们的知识并将其暴露于职位的各个方面的理想时机。将候选人暴露在现实世界中可以突出有效的领导能力，并使他们深入了解公司的整体目标。bob全站app

There are a variety of ways to get candidates involved, just choose the method that makes the most sense for the role.

• Job shadow a senior leader to learn about their day-to-day tasks
• Take on responsibilities when their manager is away
• Invite them to sit in on higher-level meetings
• 将他们带入有关战略，执行或公司预测的讨论bob全站app
• Involve them in the hiring process for junior candidates
• Give them more responsibility on projects or involve them in cross-functional work

6. Adjust your hiring strategy.

Eventually, the time will come when you extend an offer to a potential candidate. And you'll need someone else to fill their role. Luckily, the successor can use their new leadership skills to help interview or train the person filling their position. This can be an employee a few levels down or a new hire.

这就是为什么调整您的招聘策略以说明继任者的角色很重要的原因。没有他们，您的计划将不会顺利进行，他们的团队可能会争先恐后地填补空白。

7. Implement the plan.

继任计划是一个复杂的过程，具有多个短期和长期层。但是最终，是时候进行过渡了。宣布并庆祝继承。这将向员工表明，您的公司以强大的领导而自豪，并为每个人的职业发展制定了bob全站app计划。

Sometimes, a more gradual transition is needed. Family businesses often struggle with smooth succession planning because of familial relationships, emotions, and intertwined histories. In this case, a clear succession plan based on business needs is exceptionally crucial to ensure the company's continued success

CEO Succession Planning

只有三分之一的首席执行官对公司的排名bob全站appleadership qualityas "very good" or "excellent." That's a low score for such a high-stakes business priority — especially considering the majority of CEO successors are internal hires.

Harvard Business Review（HBR）将首席执行官的继承评为“可以说是董事会可以做出的最重要的决定”。取代首席执行官需要涉及一项与短期和长期公司优先事项有关的长期，发达的计划。bob全站app

首席执行官继任计划可以遵循与员工继任计划相似的步骤，但是对于此顶级角色有具体的考虑。HBR概述了开发首席执行官继任者的以下技巧：

• A candidate's competencies, personal attributes, and experiences need to be connected to business priorities. A charismatic senior leader may seem like the top pick, but a company may need a successor with expert-level technical skills in addition to social skills.
• Think several generations ahead instead of focusing on the immediate successor. Succession is a long game, so you want to position it as a continuous process to develop top talent.
• Identify seven potential CEOs in your company across all generations. This can take the stress off of each CEO transition and help keep your talent pipeline top-notch.
• Train CEO candidates through a combination of on-the-job experience, executive coaching, education, mentoring, and cross-functional training.

发展人才来担任首席执行官职位将需要高级利益相关者的时间和精力。但是，如果继承管理不善，则绝对有必要防止这种领导职务会留下的真空。

If a board is involved in the process, HBR recommends using board meetings to combine strategy sessions with talent development. That way, stakeholders can make sure strategy changes reflect the skills needed for potential successors.

Employee Succession Planning

Succession planning extends to employees in all roles across a company. Viewing it this way, rather than saving succession plans for senior leaders, helps you identify high-potential employees at all levels. You can then take steps to develop them into leaders who are able to take on additional responsibilities when a role opens up.

When looking for successors, keep an eye out for employees who are interested in learning new skills, are comfortable with change, can adapt to uncertainty and new leadership, and can manage various work environments. All potential successors should be motivated and engaged in the process because they have a chance to grow their knowledge and take on more challenging, rewarding roles.

When you see a path for an employee's growth, they'll see it too. So the next time a key leader steps down or a new director position is created, you'll know just the right people to recruit for the role.