Every Leadermanager™ Is Responsible For Succession Planning

Succession planning is not just about executives, it is about every role in your organisation.

Do you have an employee bank?

An employee bank is a file that contains the resumes and other details of prospective employees and summaries of conversations and meetings with them. My mentors advised me that having such a bank would mean I would never be without the full compliment of employees I required for too long.

They were right. I also viewed recruitment companies as a part of my bank and built relationships with them so that in my file I always had someone in mind to replace all of my employees.

I mentioned this idea to a client this week who has a skills shortage problem. He was embarrassed because he too had been taught about the employee bank, he had just forgotten to have one!

Do you have weekly meetings with your team?

One of my mentors gave me an agenda for team meetings I stuck with my entire corporate career because it worked. My agenda was:

• What’s worth celebrating?
• What can we do better?
• Personal development – this was a discussion with everyone about the status of their personal development and often included dialogue about future roles
• Business development – this was a discussion about everyone’s role in growing our business
• Anything else? – this allowed people to raise whatever they wanted to

My meetings never went longer than half an hour. The procedure was then for me to write minutes and send them around for everyone’s signature. The minutes became a document that was a record of our congruence around personal and business goals and the strategies and actions to achieve them, and as such, was an invaluable performance management tool.

I do not believe employee retention is the issue. The real leadermanager™ knows there are five main challenges to leading and managing successfully:

1. Knowing intimately the value all stakeholders demand, desire, and feel they deserve
2. Matching people to roles that deliver such value
3. Engaging our employees who fulfill these roles while they are with us
4. Capturing their knowledge for use by people in their own way in the future
5. Having replacements on tap for every role we are accountable for

Having an employee bank and conducting a weekly team meeting are two essentials for fulfilling these responsibilities.

By Ian Berry
Published with permission from the International Institute of Directors and Managers (IIDM) – www.iidmglobal.com

Proteus Leadership is one of Australia’s premier leadership training and development companies. Proteus Leadership provides leadership courses and management training to a range of industries and assists organisations to build positive workplace cultures, implement change and Create Great Leaders. Proteus also facilitates a range of world-class management courses, workshops, conferences and events across Australia and beyond with the sole purpose of bringing leaders together to connect and grow.

“Our core purpose is to Create Great Leaders that will in turn build Great companies and develop Great teams.”