Succession planning is often discussed when considering company’s managers or top leaders but it is an important consideration for any job. Succession planning refers to the process of identifying, evaluating, developing, and tracking high-potential employees who are capable of moving into different positions in the company, resulting from planned or unplanned job openings due to turnover, promotion, or business growth.
Succession planning helps organizations in several different ways. It identifies and prepares future company leaders, helps ensure that the company runs smoothly when key employees and managers leave, and creates opportunities for development and promotion.
High-potential employees are those people that the company believes are capable of being successful in higher-level managerial positions, such as general manager of a strategic business unit. High-potential employees typically complete an individual development program that involves education, executive mentoring and coaching, and rotation through job assignments. Job assignments are based on the successful career paths of the managers whom the high-potential employees are being prepared to replace.
The dissatisfaction with succession planning may result from the tendency to focus only on managers at the vice president level or above, failing to identify successors because they don’t want to risk potential leaders leaving the company because they are discouraged and disappointed, and a short-term focus on succession planning only when vacancies occur rather than a long-term process designed to develop “bench strength.” Bench strength refers to having a pool of talented employees who are ready when needed.
The nine-box grid is a three-by-three matrix used by groups of managers and executives to compare employees within one department, function, division, or the entire company. The nine-box grid is used for analysis and discussion of talent, to help formulate effective development plans and activities, and to identify talented employees who can be groomed for top-level management positions in the company.
A number of studies have identified managerial behaviors that can cause an otherwise competent manager to be a “toxic” or ineffective manager. These behaviors include insensitivity and aggressiveness toward others, inability to be a team player, arrogance, poor conflict-management skills, inability to meet business objectives, and inability to change or adapt during a transition.
In the coaching phase of the program, the manager is first presented with information about the targeted skills or behavior. This information may be about principles of effective communication or teamwork, tolerance of individual differences in the workplace, or methods for conducting effective meetings.
The second step is for the manager to participate in behavior-modeling training. The manager also receives psychological counseling to overcome beliefs that may inhibit learning the desired behavior.
