The Future Can Be Planned
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 Gary
Stroud
HPS Leadership Best Practices™ Guest Writer
Mr. Stroud joined the Electric Reliability Council of
Texas (ERCOT) as head of Human Resources in December 2002.
He has more than 24 years experience managing the human
resource function in large and small, public and private,
foreign and domestic organizations within the manufacturing,
healthcare, and technology arenas. You may contact Mr.
Stroud at gstroud@ercot.com. |
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In 1996 Ron Brown was the Commerce Secretary for the United States.
He took a group of thirty executives on a business development mission
to Bosnia. The executives were Chief Executive Officers and Presidents
of medium to large corporations. The plane they were in crashed
and all people on board were killed. How did the companies react
when they got the news? Did they have a plan in place to take the
company forward? If they had succession plans in place none would
have had trouble picking up the pieces. In 1994 the largest groups
of Americans ever were in their mid-30s. Almost ten years later
the same group is in their mid-40s. When the economy regains its
footing, a critical key to competitive success is retention of high
caliber employees. How will companies retain their "right"
employees? Succession plans help plan for disruptions and even disasters.
What is a succession plan? According to William Rothwell, the leading
authority, succession planning is a deliberate and systemic effort
by an organization to ensure leadership continuity in key positions.
It also helps retain and develop intellectual and knowledge capital
for the future which in turn encourages individual advancement.
It is a process, not an event. It lets you differentiate between
the different levels of employees in the organization. The top category
(approximately 10%) needs to be retained and developed. The middle
category (60-80%) needs to have their contribution optimized. The
bottom category (10-20%) needs to have their performance improved.
The succession plan can be use to address each of those categories.
When is the plan looked at or reviewed? Once the formal succession
plan is in place it must be an evolving document that is reviewed
and updated form time to time to reflect the changes in the marketplace
and its competitive conditions. How often do you review the succession
plan? Depends on the situation. If the CEO is retiring it is time
to review the plan. At least once a year the plan needs to be updated
by the people that put it together. The perfect time would be when
the organization is doing performance reviews. All employees set
performance goals for themselves. The goals are negotiated with
the manager. The specifics are put in each person's performance
review.
You may be saying that your organization is too small or big to
have a succession plan. There is no perfect size to begin planning.
If you work in a very large organization you may not see the formal
plan. You can start with your department. Plan a replacement for
yourself. Have your replacement plan for his or her replacement.
The process continues throughout the organization. If you work in
a very small or family-owned organization the need to plan the orderly
transfer of power is even more important simply because you have
fewer people to depend on.
Where do I start? The top level management has to buy into the
program. Convince them that better talent equals better company
performance. Top talent management is at the core of how the company
is run. Put that in the mission statement. Pay top talent the money
you would have to pay out in recruiting for them. Hold all managers
accountable for strengthening their talent pool. Start by having
the executive team name two people to replace themselves. Meet with
each executive and set up performance goals and monitoring systems.
Make the performance goals part of the performance management program.
Planning the future is not hard. Planning takes time and some diligence.
The future of the organization depends on planning and follow through;
start that with succession planning.
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