Making Succession Planning A Success—Advice From The Field

In my years as an organizational leader, I’ve had several opportunities to provide guidance on succession planning. As part of my assessment of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, I always included an assessment of the senior leaders and some of the key middle managers. Assessment is critical because people with ambition and longevity are sometimes placed in positions that do not fit well with their strengths. Hopefully, good success planning can address this because placing people in positions that do match their strengths not only assists the organization in reaching goals but allows individuals to better position themselves . . .