There are two questions which keep CEOs awake at night.
Question number 1. Do I have the right leaders in the right places right now?
Question number 2. Do I have a heathy leadership pipeline for my organization’s future?
These questions are critical for any CEO, because the response provides the strongest indicator of their organization’s, hence their own, performance today, and in the future.
But which one of these two questions is more important? Do you need to choose or prioritize? Do you need to run costly, lengthy, disconnected processes to address them separately?
In fact, the most effective and efficient way to address these two questions starts with combining them. You can combine them because your leaders need to perform now, and they simultaneously can be tested and developed to address the challenges of the future. As they are getting ready for higher level responsibilities and bigger challenges of tomorrow, they are likely to perform better today as well.
There are real value-creating synergies in keeping leadership performance, development and succession questions together in your mind. You then design and implement simple, intentional and integrated processes and programs that deliver immediate and lasting results.
During my many years of consulting and in-house roles, I have seen quite a few companies effectively managing their leadership succession, not only securing the organization’s future, but it also improving the immediate business performance.
So, how to do it? How can you harvest all possible synergies?
Like many things in life, the answer is simple. You should turn your succession management practice into a performance focused, forward looking, transparent, accountability driven continuous learning practice by taking 3 steps.
Step 1. Aim where you want to go. First, you define what is expected from your organization as it performs today and what needs to change to sustain performance in the long term. You dissect your business strategy to its “perform” and “transform” parts. Then, you define what you need in your leaders to succeed on these two fronts. Some required qualities might be the same, some might be different for perform and transform agendas. Most of the time it is about being aware of which qualities you need to dial up for which purpose.
Step 2. Assess where you are now. Do your leaders have what it takes to perform and to transform, in terms of experiences, skills and motivations? What is their level of self-awareness which enables them to pivot between perform dynamics and transform dynamics? Can they drive multiple agendas at the same time? Can they be masters of their own fate while complementing and supporting others? What is the level of their curiosity, courage, agility, so that they can develop with speed?
Step 3. Take action to close the gap. Leadership succession and development decisions should address immediate needs for performance improvement AND build your leaders for the future at the same time. Invest in the self-awareness and self-accountability of your leaders. Let them connect with their passions and lead with authenticity. Build capabilities in your leaders which have direct impact for performance improvement, and which have accelerating impact on transformation, both of the business and of themselves.
Just 3 steps. But this might require a major shift in how you think about succession management.
Succession management does not create enough business value if it is a mere planning exercise. The insights you gain during this process about the business, the ecosystem, the strategy and the leaders provide opportunities for action now which improve your performance. Act. The actions you take in return lead to new development opportunities for your leaders on the job. Let them progress.
Succession management is for the future and for now. Stop planning… Manage your succession in real time!