Who will step into your role when you leave? This is hardly a new question for many business owners and senior leaders. As the work from home culture looks like it is going to continue at some level, it’s time to expand the conversation to multiple layers in your business.
As a former COO, it was a wild adventure growing our company from 30 people to 100. Talk of exit was rarely heard because, of course, we were all going to work together forever. Growth, as it often does, led to complications and stress along with opportunities to hire more people, diversify services, move up to larger tiers of clients and so on. Initially I was a “department of 1.” Over time, that turned into a “department of 9.” At that point, life became much more complex and fragile. Keeping the team together was a top priority.
If you were suddenly out of pocket today, who would step into your role? When our firm was putting together a succession plan, we were told that we needed at least 3 successors to each parter. For some of our partners, that seemed unimaginable. But the thought process behind this type of planning made sense. Reasons included:
- To give the people you hire a future and an opportunity to buy out existing partners in the future.
- To create service continuity for the clients that we serve
- To establish a retention strategy. To retain people, you must invest in them and prepare them to take the reins and move into more challenging roles with greater responsibility. After all, most people want to feel valued because of their contributions.
We kept the process simple. These are some of the steps we put in place to build a succession plan:
- Become self-aware
- Establish a connection and trusting relationship with your people
- Embrace it idea of making your team members better than you
- Expand your understanding of human behavior
- Identify the gaps in your organization
Succession planning can be a simple and rewarding process. Make a start today for your own peace of mind. Whether you are a team of one or many, the ability to identify a successor is a minimum expectation of your family, business and clients.
Reach out if you would like to speak about the importance of succession planning and get started!