The Missing Part of Succession Planning

For many companies, succession planning involves rotational assignments so they get exposure and experience across the business. For the most part the assignments are used as a way to test and evaluate the aptitude for leadership.

However, too often the measure of success is based upon the achievements on the operational side of the business and not on managing people – employees, peers, clients – through adaptive or transformational change.

I received a call one day from the HR department asking if I was interested in a confidential assignment. Every executive coach walks into an assignment blindly. Like any other advisor, the presenting problems are rarely the root or cause of the problem. HR and the high potential VP I met with were convinced the “performance problems” resulted from the subordinate’s poor attitude and narrow business acumen.

What I found were accusations of insensitivity and even racist comments were threatening a heretofore ‘High Performing’ Vice President’s reputation and possibly career options. Her credible and well-respected African American subordinate’s performance was slipping, and the entire department was being negatively impacted by their new Vice President’s style.

I accepted the assignment to coached the subordinate directly and the Vice President indirectly. You can read the rest of the story on my blog post called Using Trust As The Fuel for Inclusion.

What I will share here is this.

The goal of creating a high performance and inclusive culture doesn’t have to be at odds. From my experience, executives have a hard time entertaining the possibility that failure is not because of a flawed business strategy, but due to poor people management or approaches that have not changed, despite the evolution to a very different business model.

Leaders are leaders not because of their titles.

The VP was unwittingly destroying the long establish high performance of several departments under her charge. You see the company was good at hiring diverse top talent but didn’t understand that high performance only comes when trust and inclusion are in play.

The senior executives at this company like so many others hadn't fully embraced the consequences of doing business in a world of constant change. Their inattentiveness to grooming leaders capable of dealing with a rapidly changing business model put this highly profitable division at risk and personally I wondered how many other cases where out there.

If you believe (even a little bit) any of the statistics showing company's that actively work to create diverse and inclusive cultures achieve higher market value/performance, ... then YOU - Mr. or Ms. Senior Executive - have to change your thinking.

People may listen to your words but they trust you because what you do is positively connected to the story in their head.

You have to accept that saying you want higher performance is not enough. Everyone has to know they have regardless of their title has some responsibility to lead. Leadership is not just responsibility of the anointed ones. Everyone has to learn how to deal with rapid change, take decisive action and practice situational leadership to succeed.

Talent strategies that don't address outdated beliefs and mental models such as

"pull yourself up by the bootstraps or my boss/HR is responsible for my career development or work hard and down rock the boat" philosophies invite mediocracy at best and a company's demise at worst.

Highly effective succession development strategies have specific, measurable objectives, clarify the definition of high and low performance and fosters personal accountability for closing performance gaps.

All things change and it's time to change our thinking about succession planning. The next level has to include strategies that create workplaces where inclusion is the responsibility of everyone.