Why do you need to build your succession plan now? Aren’t we busy enough taking care of the day-to-day? Isn’t it already sapping our strength to comply with all the regulations, hire all the people that we need, do all the selling and marketing so that our businesses can grow? When is enough, enough?
Business owners often get caught in the trap of managing what’s happening on the day-to-day for their businesses and never stop to take the time to plan for the future. The old saying is true: we spend too much time working IN the business and we don’t work enough ON the business.
Most companies wait too late to create a succession plan because they think they only need it when they sell. Knowing how to keep your business running if someone leaves (or gets sick or retires) is also a critical part of being ready for the future.
Do you want your business to abide and thrive, leaving a great legacy? If so, you may want to be thinking about this concept.
A lot of companies focus on paperwork, job descriptions, organizational charts, training plans, planning for promotions and so on. These documents are critically important. (If you need a list of all the business documents that you should have for your company, see my book Abiding Strategies: Build Your Best Business Foundation).
With respect to building an abiding future, succession planning can keep your business afloat if something unexpected changes in the personnel roster. This is much more than “paperwork” or formality. Paperwork is important, but it’s not the reason we do this. The success of your future centers on the conversations that you need to have in order to build these documents. The documentation is not where the benefit lies.
The conversations you have with your team about these things are incredibly fruitful. The discipline to build these documents models the long-term thinking and behavior you want from your crew.
As the leaders in your business, you are the captain of the ship. The ship has to stay afloat. Sometimes we focus so much on individuals or departments or products that we forget our responsibility to the entire ship and keeping it sound and floating. Do we need to be great leaders, providing the right tools and resources that get the job done? Sure. Do we need to provide joy in the workplace for our employees? Yes, of course we do. But there’s no joy if the ship sinks.
So don’t be fooled by the idea of succession planning as “getting ready for retirement or sale.” This could not be further from the truth. Building a successful business means that you know exactly what type of person is going to sit in which chair for the foreseeable future, and that plan is constantly renewed.
We all know that growth must be measurable and managed. We need to understand how many people we need, which equipment is essential and how much inventory is required to provide for our customers and prospects. These are fairly standard measurements that we use when we’re talking to our financial planners and other important advisors.
But if we only focus on Succession Planning for sale or retirement, it could be a case of “too little, too late.” We overlook the fact that people do move on occasionally. Situations change, and people leave us. If we haven’t prepared the proper succession plan and cross training, we may be in a bad place for a little while. It could leave a big vacuum that’s difficult to fill. And, if we aren’t planning for proper promotions and growth for our people, they may not realize how valuable they are to us.
So, I created the Abiding Future Workbook, and it’s available at no charge on AbidingStrategy.com. This will guide you through those critical conversations so that everyone is ready when changes happen.
The Abiding Future Workbook includes:
- A checklist so that you can gather up all the needed information before you start
- A sample list of executive characteristics, as you consider management level and up positions
- A two-page worksheet per position title that you can fill out to help you decide who needs to be on the bench
The process will help you identify who your best three bench candidates are for each senior position. It will help you identify how soon those people can be ready and how much work needs to be done to prepare them.
Having these documents in front of you while you’re talking to your team about who comes next is incredibly helpful for the consistency of the process. Of course, you’ll be able to customize parts of the workbook to meet your firm’s needs.
Sometimes we just know, or we bring in someone with the intention of moving them up the ladder. But these conversations are still imperative. Help the team understand what level of professional training they need to prepare themselves, what the potential is, and clarify your expectations. It also shows the level of commitment required by everyone.
I recommend reading articles from other resources, such as Harvard Business Review and similar groups. Also, Mary Kelly has written a great book on the topic called Who Comes Next? I highly recommend it.
You want your business to abide and leave a legacy. These conversations can help you make that happen. Be intentional about building your future.