Embracing the principles of strategic leadership, creating a pipeline of future leaders can make a crucial difference to the long-term success of an organization. Structured career development opportunities can help attract and retain high potential. Good leadership succession planning can also result in a stronger organizational culture where individuals are aligned with the company’s core values. However, it is often left until the last minute or overlooked.
Indeed, a 2014 survey by Deloitte in the US found that while 86% of leaders believe that leadership succession planning is an ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ priority, only 13% believe they do it well.
To ensure your organisation is set up for long term success, here are some valuable strategies to consider when you are preparing future leaders for your business:
Establish a Leadership Succession Planning Team
The first thing to consider is setting up a dedicated leadership succession planning team. This is a clear signal of the organisation’s commitment to developing leaders in the workplace. The team will likely comprise a mix of current leaders and senior HR managers to help ensure objectivity. Involving current leaders may also alleviate fears they might have about losing their jobs to high performers moving up through the ranks, allowing them to be active participants in building the future of the business.
The team can work together to predict the future needs of the organisation and identify the individuals who will be best able to meet those needs. They can then structure, coordinate, drive and monitor leadership succession planning initiatives to ensure business continuity and success in the long-term.
Identify Potential Leaders
Within every organisation, there are individuals with the potential to step up into a leadership role. All future leaders are different, but they will often display similar traits and skillsets, including:
- Good interpersonal/communication skills – potential leaders can be adept at clearly expressing their opinions and intentions and building positive relationships with co-workers, customers and peers
- The ability to successfully juggle competing priorities – effective leaders are committed to working hard and completing jobs on time and to a high standard
- Teamwork – individuals with leadership potential often understand the value of a team and work well within it; they may assume unofficial responsibility for certain tasks and have good conflict resolution skills
- Self-belief – future leaders may have an innate confidence in their own abilities and be willing to take accountability for their actions
- Innovation and creativity – high potentials may be eager to take the initiative and challenge proposed courses of action
The leadership succession planning team may use evidence-based products, such as psychometric testing and profiling tools to support their observations. The aim in both instances: to identify potential early, establish if individuals are interested in stepping up the ladder and then work with them on developing skills for future leadership.
Nurture and Develop Top Talent
Are leaders born or made? It’s an age-old question. We take the view that, whilst many individuals are born with character traits that are associated with good leadership, talent needs to be cultivated for individuals to reach their full potential. Here’s how to develop future leaders:
- Create a culture of learning and development for future leaders within the organisation, where individuals can attend internal or external courses as well as regular on-the-job training
- Match a mentor to each future leader, where the senior role model can share their experiences, success stories and failures, listen to their ideas, and guide and support the mentee in their endeavours
- Encourage future leaders to step up in their daily roles by assigning them to manage projects, run meetings and presentations, sit on committees and liaise with outside stakeholders
- Provide high-flyers with exposure to the full scope of business activities by seconding them to other business units or subsidiaries
Summary
Growing the next generation of business leaders entails a considerable investment of time, money and resources by the organisation. Yet for those businesses that commit to leadership succession planning – and do it well – the long-term benefits can far outweigh the costs.