"We leaders of today, and the leaders in our organizations who follow us, must become skilled, committed growers of effective leaders, staffs, and governance people. We have no more important task."

- George Weber

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Who are your leaders today? And tomorrow? And in a few years' time when the baby boomers have retired? And…how do you retain these leaders? These are the questions that exceptional organizations are asking themselves right now.

Exceptional organizations excel at recruiting and retaining leaders. They understand that the key to continued successful leadership is succession management, and that if talent is not well managed, they stand to lose these individuals to their competition. Without the right people in place, any hope of becoming exceptional will be gone.

More than ever, succession management is a critical issue for businesses today. There are fewer potential leaders to draw from as demographics show a decline in the number of people entering the work force. Furthermore, the skill set required is more complex than ever. In addition, high-potential employees have greater mobility and no longer stay with a company if they believe their talents are not being used or developed.

In spite of these concerns, many organizations are struggling with succession management. While few would argue about the pressing need to ensure they have the future leadership bench strength, many are unclear on the best way to proceed. The traditional model of the replacement plan no longer works - organizations can no longer create lists of suitable candidates for replacement to specific positions, identify leadership potential based solely on current performance, or promote people without considering their development needs.

Today, succession management begins with defining the talent-management strategy for your organization. What does talent look like, who has it, what skills and behaviours need to be developed and how will that development happen? The best organizations understand that succession management and leadership development cannot be approached as separate activities.

At The Centre for Exceptional Leadership, we know what it takes to be a great organization, and we work with organizations to build effective succession-management practices. We understand that no two organizations are the same and, as such, a succession-management process must allow for the unique nature of each organization. Furthermore, the process must reflect the reality that most development happens on the job and that leaders develop other leaders through assessments, coaching, mentoring and meaningful conversations.

To this end, we help organizations to design and implement a best-practice succession-management process that is relevant, practical and useful. Typically, this involves working in partnership with an organization to:

• Develop an overall talent/succession philosophy and strategy that is aligned to the future business requirements;
• Define future leadership expectations and requirements and subsequently develop specific leadership competencies;
• Assess individuals against current performance and leadership potential;
• Identify individuals with potential to be leaders in the organization;
• Create development plans and experiences for these leaders;
• Ensure meaningful and honest career conversations take place between all managers and employees;
• Assess the success of the succession-management process through predefined measures;
• Ensure leadership development and succession management match business strategy;
• Avoid the trap of becoming bogged down with the bureaucracy of succession management and focus on where the energy and needs are for each organization.

Research consistently supports the fact that an investment in a quality succession-management process involving the identification and development of future leaders will have a huge impact on many aspects of your organization. For example, Watson Wyatt has demonstrated that superior human capital practices, including succession management, are a leading indicator of financial performance. Furthermore, in a survey of 756 CEOs by the Center for Creative Leadership and Chief Executive magazine, nearly 80 percent of the respondents saw leadership development as either "the most" important or "one of the top five" factors in achieving competitive advantage.

"It's about building a pool of managerial talent stronger than one's competitors. It's about winning in the market. It's about performance."

The War For Talent, 2001, McKinsey & Co. Inc., p. 147

Rigorous and results-driven succession management is key to the success of every organization. The Centre for Exceptional Leadership is committed to working with organizations to make this happen.

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