The first part of this article focused on what to look for in candidates when wishing to craft a succession plan, something that today is a necessity for any organisation. How should you then prepare candidates, once they have been selected? Give them demanding assignments and let them learn while being exposed to new problems. According to the mckinsey.com website, this will strengthen their leadership abilities and help you identify the best candidate.
Rotation is a great tool
One of the best ways of preparing and developing future leaders are rotations. Your C-suite manager should select several candidates for the position. You then let them rotate through key leadership roles in the most important departments. Typically these are sales, operations and research and development. The total length of this period of rotations should be roughly two years.
Rotations provide candidates sufficient opportunity for development. At the same time you should ensure they receive supportive and constructive feedback on a regular basis. The successor will be formed and adjusted by this relatively long effort, making it probable they will succeed when their time comes. Once the process is underway, update and compare the profiles of the candidates against the relevant criteria, since these can also change with time.
Be aware of possible biases
The current manager may want to pick a copy of themselves. Some other managers may want to select rather weak candidates in order to preserve their own positions for longer. Nonetheless, it is still vital the current manager takes the lead in developing future managers. Neither a committee nor an external expert should have the final word.
The reason for this is that the current manager has a profound knowledge of the company’s strategy and its implications for any successor. It is about managing stakeholders’ expectations. In any event, the process should be institutionalised with some other senior managers reviewing the criteria and assessing the candidates, in order to filter out as many of the biases as possible.
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