Succession training, how are you doing it?

The issue of succession is relevant to any organization. The next boss, be it the prodigal son or daughter or the vice president about to step up,  how do you train the individual to do the job successfully, seamlessly? Especially if it is a generational transition, father to son or daughter. How do you do it? What is the best way?

Most CEO’s or small business owners typically have no real succession training program at all. They raise a seemingly competent employee or son or daughter through the ranks elevating him/her from time to time based on the vacancy of a position. Eventually the boss retires and the kid or VP takes over.

Lets look at the best plan for supporting a successful succession, it costs a bit more but it has great merit.

Allow an observation, the next layer of management responsibility is nothing like the previous level, different responsibility, different circumstances, different decisions to make. So elevating a junior to a senior position is throwing him into the deep water with very little, no make that no training, whatsoever.

Some say its training by doing and that may work but its too free form, no standards and to uphold and live by and does not assure continuity or consistency or reliability. As well, its risky, and a bad decision at a higher level can cost allot.

Here is a better plan. Allow the prodigy to shadow he executive he/she is going to replace for a while, maybe even a long while, say 6 months to a year. Allow the prodigy to make the decisions act as the responsible party, do the job, but with a councilor, a mentor, a back up, watching him and training him on the job. This allows for training, growth and development and fewer mistakes as the mentor, coach, the person being replaced is right there to help him learn the ropes and make the best decisions possible as he/she matures into the job. Better for the business better for the prodigy.

Yes it requires patience and the double expense of having two highly paid executives handling the same job, but considering the importance of successful succession, and the ‘guaranty’ this approach provides for a transition plan producing a well trained executive capable of doing the job effectively, its worth the investment.

One area of concern, it is very difficult for the senior officer the one being replaced to step back and allow the trainee to make the decisions. There is a huge amount of self control, ego control, that will be required or the plan will fail miserably. The mentor has to understand his new goals and objectives. This time it is not about him, it is about preparing a junior exec. to replace himself and he is the man doing the training. A real challenge but its the best way to accomplish the goal.

Personal training by the master, that’s the objective.

One more twist which will help make this a successful transition if clearly understood and implemented. The goal is not to train the junior exec to become exactly like the senior exec. he is replacing, that would be both impossible and undesirable. The job is to allow the junior the opportunity to learn how to handle the responsibility, how to plan, how to do the job, how to lead, how to make decisions but the decisions he makes should be his own, in his own style and with his own plan. The mentor is there to assist him in developing his own style and to make certain serious errors are not made along the way.

This is a very difficult task, but one that needs to be understood for the program to succeed.

Do this and you will have a very successful succession.