By Sheila Anderson-Cousins |
September 19, 2011
Not to sound brash, but you’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard that Steve Jobs stepped down last month as C.E.O. of Apple Computers. Wow - those are mighty big shoes to fill! But it would appear that Apple was prepared. In his resignation letter, Jobs stated, “As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as C.E.O. of Apple.”
Kudos to Apple. Clearly, the company had planned for this day and hope to make a seamless transition. But often times, even successful, cutting edge organizations are so busy living in the present that they aren’t thinking about the future until something like this happens.
The entire process of succession planning can seem daunting and scary. Face it; no one likes to talk about being replaced. But if you take a step back and break the task down into smaller steps, you’ll see that the process is smart, logical and fairly painless.
When embarking on your succession planning journey, start at the top. Create alignment throughout the organization and weave it into corporate strategy and existing human resource systems. A comprehensive Discovery Audit will help clarify roles and responsibilities throughout the organization and uncover business needs that are necessary to meet short and long term business goals. Combine this with a review of existing HR systems and you can ensure everyone is aligned in their vision and commitment to succession planning. Of course once that vision is established, be sure to communicate clearly to all stakeholders, discussing the purpose of succession planning and its impact at the individual, divisional and organizational levels.
Think about it – are there feet ready to fill the big shoes in your organization?
Want to learn more? For details on succession planning, along with development tools and examples of best practices, download our guide to Getting the Most Out of Succession Planning.
