Succession Planning

Succession planning may sound unnecessary (and maybe morbid), but a well-considered succession plan can reduce the stress of losing a key staff member and help ensure your business operates smoothly through the transition.

You owe it to yourself, your family, your employees, your suppliers and your customers to adequately prepare for the loss of a critical team member.

As the adage goes: ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!’

Reasons to consider succession planning:

There are statistically fewer qualified professionals available to fill key leadership positions. A “decline in the number of 35-44 year olds…means there will be fewer people available for the top management slots and high performance executive talent will be in demand.” (Tom Saporito, SVP, RHR International)
A retiring baby-boomer generation will shrink the pool of executives.
Younger, eager managers are seldom prepared to take on the responsibility of executive leadership.
A study by the Center for Creative Leadership reveals that 66% of senior managers hired from outside fail in the first 18 months.

A key position for your business may not be an executive.

Do you run a garage? What would you do without your shop supervisor?
Are you managing a busy restaurant? Who will cover if your manager leaves?

You can always fill in but it’s difficult to steer the ship if you’re in the boiler room stoking the fires. Who in your business is prepared to fill the critical positions and leave you the time to run your business?

Need more reasons to create a succession plan?

Beyond preparing your business to weather the loss of a key leader, succession planning helps build capability within your business by preparing junior managers to fill more senior positions. A more capable business is likely more profitable.

Additionally, succession planning can improve retention of cultivated managers by reinforcing their upward mobility opportunities.

Contact us today learn how DLP can help you begin the succession planning process, review your existing succession plan, help identify members of your team ready for cultivation and work with you to adjust your succession plan to today’s challenging business landscape.