April 2008 Deep Insights

Succession planning is often thought through when crisis, chaos or an unexpected departure occurs. Organizations must be proactive to protect themselves, their customers, investors and personnel. An anticipatory succession strategy must exist within their culture for recruiting, developing and fostering loyalty.

Active recruiting of “like minded” people to begin their careers with your organization is critical to a successful succession strategy. Relationships formed with educational institutions, business organizations and through community activities are sources that require cultivation. Too often, these sources are left unattended or assigned to midlevel/senior management.
In fact, they should be assigned to the most recent recruits. Recruits speak the language of their source and are capable of telling other “like minded” people about their positive experiences within the organization.

Development of the personal and professional skills of new recruits allows an organization to promote from within. This succession strategy requires an environment for employees to grow while participating in the development of others and occurs best through mentoring. While mentoring is often thought of as a download exercise by those with experience, technology has broadened mentoring into an upload experience as well. New personnel bring skills only they know. Organizations must create development opportunities for those skills to be uploaded into the organization. Succession planning is mutually beneficial, benefiting the new recruit and the organization as the development process progresses.

If managed correctly, the recruiting and development process will create an anticipatory succession strategy within the culture of the organization. Recruits will recruit. The mentoring process will ensure that information and development occur by uploading and downloading. And, promotions from within will provide an organization with a ready supply of competent and loyal successors.