It’s Time to Rethink Succession

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July 19, 2021

by John O. Burdett

An organisation where disruption, agility and speed of learning dominates the leadership conversation demands a more robust process to identify and develop future leaders.

Planning for success

Breakthrough technology, uncertainty, the increasing speed of change and the redefinition of “work” demand an organisation that is a fit for the 21st century (built to change).

We are describing not just a better but a very different kind of way to operate. An organisation where disruption, agility and speed of learning dominate the leadership conversation – one that redefines what it means to be a leader – demands a more robust process to identify and develop future leaders.

There are a good many issues that can derail a successful business. None, however, contain the potency for failure as having the wrong leader in the wrong role at the wrong time.

We refer to it as “succession planning.” A better description would be “planning for success.”

Without talent, mediocracy is a given. And without effective succession planning tomorrow will, at best, be a replay of today. The evidence is that few organisations have a highly effective succession process. There is every reason to believe it’s time to rethink succession.

This Executive Playbook invites you to assess your current process and, where deemed necessary, align succession with the unprecedented challenge and opportunity this century represents.

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Contents:

• Coming Down the Mountain
• All Learning Starts with a Question
• The Succession Imperative
• Why Does Succession Fail?
• Lack of Direction from the Board
• A Broken or Incomplete Process
• Confusing Succession with Replacement
• Casting Too Wide a Net
• Confusing High Performance with High Potential
• Inappropriate Leadership Competencies
• The Future Culture Is a “Best Guess”
• Coaching Is “Something We Need to Get To”
• What It Means to Be a Team
• Succession Candidates Are Poorly Integrated into the New Role
• Conclusion
• Appendix one
• The TRANSEARCH Succession Process

This article is an extract of content © Orxestra® Inc. The download is available from the TRANSEARCH International website.

John O. Burdett is founder of Orxestra® Inc. He has extensive international experience as a senior executive. As a consultant he has worked in more than 40 countries for organisations that are household names. John has worked on organisation culture for some of the world's largest organisations. His ongoing partnership with TRANSEARCH International means that his thought leading intellectual property, in any one year, supports talent management in many hundreds of organisations around the world. Get in touch with John O. Burdett »