Who Doesn't Love Change? Overcome Succession Planning Challenges

Succession Planning Challenges

I was looking into my crystal ball recently and it showed a lot of change for the future. It shows me growing my business. It shows me making mistakes. It shows me winning the lottery. Ahhh, who am I kidding. My crystal ball doesn’t exist. And because I don’t have a crystal ball, I plan for the future. I plan for change. I help companies plan for change because change is inevitable. 

Succession planning is a key initiative for leaders to participate in to secure the future of their organizations. Nothing lasts forever, not even employees. Employees are job hopping more than ever. Succession planning is the process of identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions. 

Recently, I wrote about the steps to take to create a strong succession plan. They are:

• Identify Key Roles

• Identify Key Skills, Knowledge, Abilities, and Competencies needed for those roles

• Identify who in the organization can step into the role 

• Who wants to steps into those roles

• When will that individual be ready to assume the role

• How are you going to develop that individual’s knowledge, skills, and abilities to be a success in that role

As you work through the steps above and create your succession plan, realize that there are obstacles to overcome and challenges to meet. Some of the challenges to pay attention to when you work on your Succession Plan are:

Focusing Exclusively on Executive Levels

A comprehensive succession plan is the best way to ensure continuity of roles and planning for all roles within the organization, not just the executive level. Manager roles take time to learn and grow into and failing to identify successors for your manager roles can leave holes in your organization. Focusing on all roles from executive to management to individual contributors helps strengthen your talent pool.

Failing to Customize Your Plan to Your Organization

I get it. Companies are strapped for time and want to search online for a template to plug information in and hit enter to get the exact gameplan. Important initiatives like succession planning cannot be “plug and play”. You need to identify the key roles in YOUR organization. You identify what core competencies are important for YOUR roles. Not every company has the same values and shared goals as a template you find online. Tailor your succession plan to YOUR organization.

Selling the Role

I know when I was in Recruiting we wanted to fill all of the roles quickly and so we would practically sell the position to the candidate. The candidate would be hired and then reality sunk in. The job was nothing like we had described it. But, we filled the role. When you’re writing your succession plan, don’t spin the job into something it’s not. Be realistic when talking to employees about different roles. Every job has the good, the bad, and the ugly. Don’t get salesy. If you do, someone will take on the job they weren’t prepared for and probably won’t succeed in their new role. You’ll be back where you started. 

Read one of the oldest HR jokes about recruiting here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141117110359-1092767-hard-selling-recruitment-joke/

Failing to Communicate

Leaders don’t want to put employees on edge. They may not trust that employees can handle the truth and so they don’t talk about important initiatives. If we don’t talk about it, it won’t happen, right? Talk with employees about succession planning. Let them know that the company cares about the future of the company and is preparing for it. Let employees know that the company cares about their future. Let employees know that there are opportunities for career advancement. Be transparent about succession planning.

Identifying a Single Successor for the role

Build your internal talent pool with many successors for each role. You need to have a succession plan for your succession plan.

Failing to Update the Plan Regularly

Many organizations fail to update the plan and are left flailing when they revisit the plan or someone announces their retirement and the organization realizes their plan is out of date. The person they had prepared to move into the role has left the organization. Or has moved into a role they’re better suited for. Keep your plan current so you’re not left struggling to fill roles when someone leaves.

Not Everyone Has Buy-In

When undertaking any important initiative at work, senior leaders need to be spearheading the charge and talking about it. If some people are reluctant, find out what their hesitation is and address it. Everyone needs to be behind the plan in order for it to work.

Failing to Properly Document The Plan

Document. Document. Document. If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. Document every step of the process. Document the key skills, knowledge, abilities, and competencies. Document the process used to identify employees. Document the competencies and skills that people need to learn to grow into the roles. Document the steps and training methods used to get people ready for their new roles. Document. Document. Document.

Underestimating Change

Change is inevitable. Another obstacle to overcome when developing a succession plan is underestimating change. How quickly it can happen. How unexpected it can be. When talking about succession planning, be realistic about the amount of change and the speed at which it can happen. Think about the worst possible scenarios that can alter your company and prepare for those.

Personal Biases 

Understanding what personal biases are and how to overcome them is important when working on a succession plan. Personal biases will creep in when you’re identifying key roles. They show up when you’re identifying successors, and they rear their ugly heads when you are creating training plans to develop employees’ new skills.

Planning for change and being prepared for change is taking ownership of your business. Being aware of the challenges that can crop up and knowing how to overcome those challenges ensures a strong future for your organization. And if you stumble across a working crystal ball, let me know. I’d love to get in on that action. 

What other obstacles does an organization face when creating a succession plan? Leave your comments below.

If you’d like to learn more about Succession Planning and how to develop one for your business, reach out to me and schedule a discovery call. Or connect with me on LinkedIn.