What Your Mother Never Told You About Succession Planning, Part II
This is the second blog of a 3-part daily series on Succession Planning. The first blog was posted on this same website a day ago, September 11, 2023. Enjoy!
The SEVEN (7) preparatory steps for determining the need for a Succession Plan are:
- Assess your current operations
- Assess your future state based on workforce trends
- Identify the key positions
- Identify potential successors to the key positions
- Determine critical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed for each key position
- Determine successors’ state of readiness based on the KSAs needed
- Select knowledge transfer strategies
The SEVEN (7)questions you need to ask are:
- What operations are critical to the future of the organization?
- What positions might need to be consolidated?
- What positions might need to be eliminated?
- How will future trends impact on what we are doing/not doing now?
- Is the workload expected to increase or decrease?
- If so, what skills and abilities will be needed to go forward?
- Will I be able to fill all potential vacancies with existing staff?
The SEVEN (7) immediate steps for you to take are:
- Step 1: Determine Key Position(s)
- Step 2: Identify minimum competencies required for the position
- Step 3: Identify potential replacement challenges
- Step 4: Assess degree of risk that a loss of a key position will cause
- Step 5: Identify critical knowledge to be transferred to possible successor(s)
- Step 6: Determine knowledge transfer strategies
- Step 7: List positions qualified to act in the position, if needed in a crisis.
The last part of this 3-part series will provide a tool for assessing key positions. Stay tuned!