Fueling Succession Planning: Strategies for Identifying and Growing Talent
In the previous article, we covered what succession planning is. Before that, we laid the groundwork for some benefits of effective succession planning. We will explore that further in a future article, but today, we will explore how you can identify talent and nurture that talent to ever-expanding roles. Succession planning does not happen on its own. It will take input from all parties to be successful. Regardless of how you develop the talent, the first step is finding talent. Succession planning aims to fill open and future-created roles from within your organization. Internal promotions always know your business better than someone coming from the outside. That immediately accelerates the learning curve for the responsibilities of the new role. It continues to reinforce the need for a well-defined process.
The intake part of a succession planning system is both internal and external. Begin with the end in mind. Think about those championship baseball teams; they knew what they would need to put a winning team together in each position. Maintain that same mindset. Know what you’re looking for in the roles you will have in the future. At the store level, you likely know what type of person or level of expertise you will need for your business. The same holds at the multi-unit level. The responsibilities’ breadth will differ, but the thought process is similar. In fact, multi-unit leaders would be wise to stay very close to each of their direct reports’ succession plans, not theirs personally (of course, that should be a priority). I mean the program they have for their location. If you think three to five years down the road, the talent they hire and foster at the store level will eventually be your selection pool for future leaders immediately in your remit.
How can you put this together so that you always feel like you will have good options? By good options, I mean not forcing the event. If your succession planning process does not factor in timing and unexpected changes, you may have two problems. First, you may end up promoting someone to a role they are unprepared for. That can undermine the entire program, as others may determine it is not working. It can be more challenging to let go of that internally promoted leader than someone from the outside. Be intentional in how you promote from your succession plan. Second, if you always need to find external options because the internal options are not ready, then your team will begin to question if it really works and can get discouraged. Let’s look at some steps you can take to avoid those and develop a fruitful planning process for you and your team.
Always filling the funnel
To maintain viable options for any role, you need a plan for continually filling the funnel of future potential. Not every hire will be the next Supervisor or Manager. That is okay. So, you’ll want to ensure you are looking across your entire organization for your needs in specific roles. Remain mindful that some of the best options may not be in the natural course of positions. Leaders need to know their teams at all levels to understand what they are interested in doing. What may seem like a simple part-time position for someone in high school or college could be the start of a lengthy career in retail leadership. Even if there is some hint of interest, we should have ways to help them explore it further. If you are like me, I never intended to have the career I have in retail when I started as a part-time stock associate in a toy store.
Recruiting for your succession planning program needs to be both inside and outside the business. Whether you are looking for specific skill sets, personalities, or the right combination of both, you must always be looking. You hear it often hire for attitude rather than skills. Skills can be taught. I agree, but it is even better when you can find a good balance and combination. Admittedly, personality fit is something most prefer to avoid talking about, but you must find a group of people that can and will work together as a team.
Talent Pipeline beyond the top of the funnel
Know where your blocking points could be. In every team, you will have players who are great at what they do but are not looking for advancement. These are necessary for every team. They can play a particular role for you as well. These are frequently employees who can train newly hired people. They are typically the ones who can speak from experience and explain to others the pitfalls to avoid. Using these activities as developmental items for your ‘seasoned pros is a great opportunity.’ It will continue to push them to keep up with new talent, yet feel they are contributing along the way.
Be clear on the growth needs
As you begin to build plans for team members, you must ensure they understand the thought processes you have for their future. They may not recognize their developmental needs relative to what you are looking for. Most people do not know what is *really* needed for that next-level role. And, if you have plans to develop cross-functionally or laterally, they likely will need help understanding why or how that would work for them. Imagine a Supervisor in one department who has their sights on the manager role (their supervisor) in their area. Instead, you want them to take on a different Supervisor role in a parallel business area. They may initially need to understand that you want to round out their experience and knowledge of multiple areas of the business. Now, they have two potential paths instead of one, and you also have numerous options. It may feel like a move sideways, but it can be a great way to widen the impact of your succession plan.
These initial steps will ensure that you always have people filling your future hiring pool. The fear can be that you’ll end up with too many people in your succession plan, and either they will get disappointed, or you will not be able to manage it all. Those are real possibilities. Plan to lose some talent in your development pool. Great talent is always exploring their options. Realistic communication on your part is crucial in letting them know their developmental needs and timelines. We’ll talk about how you manage your plan more in a future article.
Identifying talent is the starting line. The next article will discuss building specific development programs for your talent pool. Beyond that, how do you continue to nurture that to keep them moving forward, having a sense of progress, and seeing the potential they will have within the organization?
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