Succession Planning
Friday June 26, 2009
Companies that don't do succession planning have to struggle to replace key employees who leave or die. Those companies lose customers and employees while the search for successors goes on.
Are you practicing succession planning within your group? Even if your company isn't doing succession planning at a corporate level, and not enough of them are, you should be doing what you can at your level. Why? Simply because you can't be promoted until you have someone ready to take your place when needed.
More on Planning:
I admit I was a little bit dumb-founded by this idea at first glance; “can’t be promoted until you have someone ready to take YOUR position”.
I think this may be a result of thinking that some people may fear losing their position, and thus fail to mention to senior management potential leaders within their “pool of talent”. However, this seems like a bit of a pessimistic idea rather than a reflection of the reality.
In contrast, it would be a bit frustrating to not be promoted in a situation where there was simply “no one to replace you…”.
One of the article says:
“I’m afraid we can’t afford to free him up right now. It’s easier to recruit externally for the higher-level position than it would be to back-fill Bill’s job…”
Does this statement reflect the difference in the number of eligible managers for each position, or am I missing a more important point..?
Cheers
Succession planning must be a project in any company in the world. The learning by doing is a intangible asset that companies canīt lose if a employee dead or leave to another company. A firm must be place knowledge between the workers and the owners, in both sides.