Executive & Managerial Succession Planning

𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈

One of the crucial elements to ensuring the sustainability of your business is Succession Planning. Whether it is the leadership role of a Chair, CEO, MD, divisional and functional Directors and Heads, departmental Managers, Supervisors or Team leaders, these leadership roles need successors if your business is to maintain stability and continuity.

The best time to plan for succession is when the incumbent is happy and engaged, not when they hand in their notice, start talking about retirement, or when you put them on a performance management plan when their results or behaviours have nose-dived.

Succession planning needs to be an ongoing project throughout the organisation, regularly reviewed and amended where necessary, to suit the changing demands of the business. Succession planning is not just about replacing people, it’s as much about developing, training and providing progression opportunities to existing employees. A good succession plan should assist retention and lower the pressure and urgency that attrition can cause.

Existing talent is always the first place to look when you are succession planning. The benefits for developing and progressing people who already know your business, it’s products, services and culture are clear. However, the ‘best person within your business’ for a particular role does not mean you have the best person possible for that role. That person may come from outside of the business.

Sometimes, internal candidates may have skills gaps that can’t be addressed within the necessary timeframe. They may be able to take a step up or forward but may struggle to progress much further. We all have our limits and whilst appropriate training, development, coaching and mentoring can improve us, there will come a point where a certain job or level of responsibility is just a bridge too far.

Talent that can be developed for a future role offers the business options moving forward, at the same time as valuing the employee and keeping them engaged and motivated. In scenarios where there is no natural successor or the development of internal talent may not guarantee eventual progression or success, the use of a trusted Executive Search partner can provide different solutions to these challenges.

Headhunting can expedite the succession planning process by identifying and attracting external candidates who already have the necessary skills and experience. By working with a retained Executive Search specialist or Head-hunter, you can build a ‘talent pool’ of suitable external candidates who in theory, would be the right fit and ready to move into the incumbent’s role in the future.

The Headhunter would build and maintain a relationship with the potential candidates, so that when the time comes to go externally out to search for a successor, a ‘shortlist’ of suitable candidates can be arrived at quickly. Talent-pooling for specific roles also enables the employer to benchmark what good looks like, based on the wider market, in addition to the incumbent or potential internal successors.

The usual way an Executive Search specialist can help is to head-hunt talent to replace outgoing employees at shorter notice (e.g. when an incumbent tenders their notice or has unsuccessfully navigated a performance-management plan), or for additional or newly created roles if the required talent is not already in the business.

At Authentica Resourcing, Jeff Beacham provides an objective assessment of candidates' skills and experience, which can be helpful when evaluating potential successors. Insight into market trends and competitor activity can also be considered, which can inform succession planning decisions.

Succession planning can be a sensitive process, particularly when it involves identifying potential successors for senior leadership roles. Authentica Resourcing can maintain confidentiality throughout the recruitment process, protecting the organization's reputation and minimizing the risk of potential successors being poached by competitors. The headhunting process can also help to identify a diverse pool of candidates for succession planning, which can help to promote diversity and inclusion in leadership roles.

There are various stakeholders and contributors in the succession planning process, as suggested in the graphic below:

𝑺𝒐, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈? 

Understanding which roles need succession planning is a great place to start and having those collated and understood by the leaders in the business.

‘Workforce Planning’ is often a place that companies don’t realise they need to look at a lot closer and spend some time working on. If done right it can save the company an absolute fortune in recruitment costs and lost productivity, as well as creating a more cohesive, inclusive and engaged workforce.

So where do you start? 

We’ve used 3 ways to approach this depending on the stability of the business...

1: Firefighting – You are seeing instability in the business, have a high attrition rate of staff, have key pockets of knowledge that are ‘at risk’ or don’t have a plan in place already. In this case the Management Team need to map critical job positions within their lines of responsibility where they feel there is a threat. To include any individuals within their remit that are a risk of flight, or a source of expertise that would be hard or time consuming to replace.

The most senior executive or business owner then needs to conduct the same exercise regarding their management team and, depending on their own Emotional Intelligence, themselves.

The entire Management team then need to meet and talk through their reports, to sense-check their thinking and see if anyone else has a potential back-fill for one of their at-risk roles.

You then have your emergency list to start working on.

You really DO NOT want to be doing it like this as it can feel like a Witch Hunt and can be disruptive, but better to do this than risk the consequences.

Far better is to look at it….

2: Proactively – You are owning the process not the other way round, and like many initiatives, it starts at the top and cascades.

The company owner / CEO looks at the company's Long Range Plan (you do have one of those right?) and looks at what parts of the business are critical to hitting it, that’s your starting point. From there work with those areas to map the critical roles and again work with the management team to get infill and different thinking to make sure you have the whole picture.

From there, you have your starting point, and the senior team is aligned to support this initiative. Agree on a prioritisation of that list and break down the workload to the individual senior team members to work through.

And the last option….

3: Inclusively – Our preferred route, ‘we have some breathing space so let’s do this properly’. Set a team meeting with an advanced agenda that we are looking at Succession Planning and for the team to come prepared with their key positions and individuals that need planning for AS WELL AS their high performers that need to be grown into the next role.  

This is a whole different way of doing it and is a full cascade that starts at the very top and goes through to the Management team who in turn do the same to their teams, who in turn….... well you get the idea. 

You’ve mapped the entire business, know your pain and growth opportunities and can start work to mitigate risk and grow the talent.

This work is revisited every 6 months as a management team and reviewed / refreshed more often than that as individual managers to make sure the company is well and truly on top of it.

Once you’ve taken one of the above 3 options, these roles then need to be thoroughly mapped so all responsibilities and key measures are understood and can be trained or developed into potential candidates.

So, you’ve got a top-line idea of your Succession Planning needs, but that is just the start of it. We now need to look at the job description for the at-risk individuals and make sure that it is current and includes all responsibilities including any ‘creep’ that may have occurred since they took the role on.

Dovetail in with that a review of the skills needed for the role and any gaps that currently exist as a development opportunity for the individual currently in the position to help retain and grow them further, if possible, rather than lose them in the first place.

This should then be part of a ‘company and individual growth plan’ and be mapped by the direct line manager for this role with input from the actual employee in the role. You would be shocked at how many managers don’t know exactly what their employees are responsible for until they are no longer in the position and things start getting missed!

The next logical step is to look at what talent you have in the business that can fill the ‘at risk’ role and not just their direct reports. Are there individuals in other parts of the business whose abilities could well transfer and add to the role?

Looking at your career ladders for adjacencies and as part of the proactive ‘company and individual growth plan’ managers at all levels should be encouraged to be compiling a list of their high performers and those looking to upskill or side skill. 

This list then becomes your immediate priority for succession planning, if nobody fits the role then there is always the next step…

This is where the path forks…

If you have time on your side and the gap between your existing talent and the ‘at risk’ role is not too much, implement a specific training and development program for ‘fast track’ candidates who are capable and want to progress their careers. This should include internal coaching and mentoring to expedite that individual’s development.

Now is the time to start working with those highlighted individuals who can fill those critical roles, as any strong leader knows if you have succession planning in place you are lining yourself up for the next promotion as you have proven your ability to manage and grow individuals and when that time comes for you to jump to the next role the cost and disruption to the company is negligible.

With that in mind, there should be a culture of Coaching within any successful business where there is formal time spent between managers and employees coaching them to help them get unstuck and keep on developing their skills and mindset.

Side by side with this there should be a Mentoring program where, and here’s the kicker, any senior leader who has an at-risk role within their remit Mentors individuals that could be suitable for that position. If that is too ‘sensitive’ then the option of only Mentoring employees from outside of your direct remit is a good idea to minimise any potential conflict of interest that may be perceived.

If time is not on your side or the gap in talent is too large (or you need a different skillset brought into the business) this is when you should turn to a specialist recruiter who can find the right candidate to fill that role and bring diverse thinking and more talent into the business.

There is nothing wrong with looking at both options together, to measure your talent pool against the market and consider what extra value bringing an external resource can add to your company.

By working with an experienced Executive Search professional who knows the Manufacturing space and is in constant dialogue with passive and active talent, will enable your business to identify and hire the right future leaders. An additional benefit is that you will have a trusted source of market talent trends, salary and remuneration benchmarks and more.

𝑺𝒐, 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕? 

Almost - What about the Executive team and succession planning for the CEO?

This can be managed in one or a combination of three ways.... 

1.     The CEO can follow the same mapping process as previously mentioned and work with high potential candidates to backfill the board and their own role.

2.     If you are forward thinking and want to empower and retain talent you can look to an external Coach and Mentor to independently grow and develop those senior individuals (proven to have a ROI of £5 for every £1 spent so a good investment in their growth as well as the companies!) This has the added benefit of bringing fresh thinking, positive challenge and expedited growth into the business. It also massively increases retention rates for employees who feel valued, grown and understood and are in turn more productive and supportive of the company.

3.     Reach out to a specialist Executive Search firm (now where can you find one of those?)

They will collaborate with you to proactively go out into the market openly or through clandestine search activity to find the right talent to bring into your business as experienced talent at a senior level, able to elevate the thinking and capacity of the management teams.

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒖𝒎 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒙𝒊𝒎𝒖𝒎 𝑹𝑶𝑰?

There is a great new hybrid way of working that Authentica Resourcing is now offering that takes a novel approach to senior management recruitment and retention.

Intrigued? Read on………..

Our new ‘Platinum' service has been developed to not only make sure we find you the right talent, but we are also developing talent for you both inside and outside of your business, to give you that competitive edge.

·       Finding talent and nurturing to the level you require – Depending on your needs and budget, not only can we find the right candidates and onboard them into your business effectively and explosively via our Coaching & Mentoring service (3 months)

We build a bespoke solution to make sure not only does the candidate understand your culture, but also has a smooth transition into the business, minimising disruption

You get a better ROI as they can hit the ground running and start contributing and taking ownership in days, rather than weeks or months

We help develop their thinking and problem-solving abilities to help bring positive challenge as part of their integration into your business

·       Bringing talent to you and helping you retain them (onboarding plus 6 months or a year C&M)

This is about offering a continued onboarding program that brings with it another 20+ years Board Level experience as the candidate has the full backing and support of our senior level Coach and Mentoring partner, Jon Cox.

This involves monthly meetings to mentor and develop the candidate and a pre-agreed number of hours a month that they can call off with just 24 hours’ notice to help them with immediate sticking points or challenges ongoing rather than wait or stall their progress

This keeps executives engaged, supported and positively challenged, as well as giving them a safe space to work through issues and challenges that they may not feel comfortable raising at this early stage in their career and risks them holding back or leaving because of it

·       Developing your internal senior talent (6-12 months)

After all, it hardly seems fair to bring in a new shining star without giving the rest of the team that same advantage

Time for some positive challenge and different thinking using a combination of Coaching to pull out from the individual(s) their thinking and problem solving, as well as Mentoring to teach new ways, processes, thinking and approaches

Supercharge your senior team, create team cohesion and a High Performing Team capability

𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝑭𝑹𝑬𝑬 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝑱𝒆𝒇𝒇 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒎 𝒐𝒓 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒙 

Jeff Beacham is Director & Owner of Authentica Resourcing, an Executive Search firm specializing in the headhunting of Director & C-Suite leaders across Manufacturing, Engineering, Capital Equipment & Automation sectors.

Jon Cox is an Executive Coach & Mentor and helps SME Companies, Business Owners and Senior Executives get ‘Unstuck’ via Coaching and then Catapult them forward with Mentoring.