Plan to leave – providing credible succession

When our climb up the slippery career pole has been successful the last thing on our minds is succession. Getting to the top is hard, and the view is to be savoured…isn’t it? The problem is that without thinking ahead about who is going to fill your place, you cannot realistically be promoted any further – or if you have the top job already in the organizatoin, leave with grace for a bigger role in another organization.

Succession is something that we should consider sometime at the start of our tenure in a role as a leader. If you have it in mind, at least on the agenda of things to think about, then you can mentally and in real time test out potential talent in your team for future roles – yours or other promotions. If they don’t meet expectations, then all is not lost, try someone else out, with low risks. If you leave it all until the month or two before you leave you may chose with haste and have time to regret your actions.

 If you recruit or attract internally a talented team then getting them noticed and promotion their competence is something that a leader should always do. Your own reputation will be enhanced as you become known internally as a talent magnet, and someone who can and does provide talent development for the bigger organization. If you select and develop your team well then your successor should and could come from your own team. If you are really good at developing capability then your team will become successors for leaders with less abiltiy to develop thier own successors – all in all not a bad place to be. Think great I ‘ve got a new challenge, a great new job, …. who could I develop to do it when I leave.