 Making a Case for Succession Planning
A manufacturing company was humming along smoothly, doing business, making a profit, providing a service to the community and a livelihood for many people, when the unforeseen occurred. The manager left.
A job had opened up in a city and company where he wanted to be, so he took it. And who can blame him? Everyone has his own dream and career plan to follow. The problem? There was no one to fill his shoes. None of the existing employees had been groomed for management, and none of them could handle the job. The result? The company shut down completely until a replacement manager could be found. Ouch! Think of the huge losses to the company and to the employees who had no work.
Could this happen in your organization? It’s a definite possibility if there is no succession plan in place. Succession planning is critical to ensure a vacant position can be filled by the right person with right skills at the right time. This means that potential candidates need to be identified, developed, progressed, and prepared for future openings, and this needs to start right at the recruitment stage.
Succession planning isn’t just for executive and senior management positions; it applies to all key roles within an organization. As people retire or take the next steps in their careers, someone should already be in place who can take over successfully. So obviously, this needs to be a well-thought-out process.
There are four key risks to take into consideration when creating a succession plan:
- Vacancy risk ...critical positions will remain vacant
- Readiness risk ...successors are underdeveloped
- Transition risk ...successors are unable to adapt to the position
- Portfolio risk ...there are no candidates; the pipeline is empty
How do you address these risks? What else is needed in creating and implementing a succession plan? What are some of the challenges you might face? We’ll discuss these topics in future issues of the newsletter. But if you can’t wait and need some guidance right now, call us (800-303-2315). We’ll be glad to help out.
 Pass the Smiles Around
Recently I got an email from my boss with a list of things we should do, and it ended with “if you don’t, the elastic on your underpants will break and they’ll fall down around your ankles.” Was this a threat? A curse? A scary insight into the state of my underwear?
Nope, just a joke, something to make me smile at an unexpected time. And it still makes me smile. It didn’t change my workload or have a huge impact on my day. But it did make a difference and the day was a bit better after that.
What can you do to make someone smile and lighten their load a bit? Think about it! Do it! |
—Communications Tips—
ExPert Networking
For expert information on “How to Network Like a Pro”, read the November issue of Chatelaine magazine. In it, Dimension 11’s president, Sherry Knight, was interviewed along with other networking experts.
As you read the article, you’ll find five points to make your networking successful. It can be found on our website in the article section or on the Chatelaine website.
And, if you have your own tips and networking success stories, please
. With your permission, we’ll publish them in a future issue of the newsletter, and we’ll all expand our networks a little bit more. Who knows where it could lead?
Quotes
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”—Herman Melville, 1819-1891
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