3 Succession Planning Mistakes Many Companies Make

The goal of succession planning is to assess and address your organization’s risk of losing key people, knowledge and experience. But the fact is, organizations don’t always do a good job of looking at their people needs. Organizations must assess not just the positions that need to be filled but also the skills, talent and people that are needed to support their strategic plans and growth goals to remain competitive in the market or to pursue new markets.

When your organization is addressing its talent risks and needs through succession planning, there are several mistakes you’ll want to avoid. Here’s a look at the three most common succession planning mistakes companies make.

The scope is too narrow.

In many cases, organizations simply don’t have a broad enough view of succession planning. The typical succession planning thought process goes like this: “People are going to retire and those positions will need to be filled.” That’s not thoughtful enough to be a strategic approach to succession planning.

Succession planning requires your organization to take a broader look at the real risk of loss whether through retirements, promotions or movement within the organization -- and even high potentials who might be flight risks. Additionally, companies need to look at the skills and experience needed in these positions as well as any news jobs or positions that might be needed to meet company goals. If you keep a narrow view in your succession planning, you run the risk of not having the talent needed to be competitive, grow or attack new markets down the road.

The plan covers only the senior team.

Many organizations only look at their senior level team when they are mapping out a succession plan. But often the real risk and need in the organization goes much deeper.

Long-term employees in critical roles, highly technical employees, and key departments combined with very lean organizations can mean that the bulk of risk and need for succession planning in an organization is actually in the middle of the organization. By driving the succession planning process down a couple of levels deeper, a company can address the real risks and needs that are the reasons for succession planning.

The succession plan is just a list of names.

A common mistake I see organizations make with their succession planning is that they just have names on a piece of paper; there’s no plan behind the succession plan. Instead, it’s just an outline of the senior level team with the names of people who are potential successors. There might be some red, green and yellow labeling to identify whether each person is ready to step up into the position now, at a later time or much later down the road.

The whole point of succession planning is to know you have a ready bench: the right people at the right time in the right role. This means that the most important part of succession planning is to make sure that potential successors have development plans that include growing skills and having experiences that prepare them to actually move into their new positions. Every organization needs a plan behind the names on the page.

A real succession plan requires an organization to go deep enough into the organization to address the right risks, needs and develop a real people strategy that aligns with its future success.

Succession planning is our specialty, so contact us if you need help, or read our white paper to learn more about how to get it right:

Success Labs is a full-service, strategic organizational and leadership development company located in Baton Rouge, La. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.