Loyd Rawls

Avoid Succession Hell – 4 Keys for Selecting Successors
September 17, 2007

Succession hell is to be caught unprepared without an acceptable successor. In any circumstance, being unprepared is unacceptable. As a business leader, one of your highest priorities is your stewardship responsibility to your family, shareholders, devoted management and employees, vendors and creditors.

 So, let’s think positively and address the four keys for selecting a successor:

1. Available
2. Capable
3. Competent
4. Committed

 Availability:

 Confirming that some things are simpler than others, in order for you to prepare a successor you must have a successor. Before you rip me for harping on the obvious, this statement is very important because from my experience, only one in four businesses have a potential successor on board. As a result it is estimated that only 40% of businesses make it to the second generation and 12% make it to the third!!!

So, where are you if you are operating a business and have not begun seriously considering if you have a successor on board? You are in harm’s way and that light at the end of the tunnel is not an opening.

 Succession planning begins with the consideration of candidates. If none are available, either go find one or recognize that you are potentially leaving others in the lurch.  

Capacity:

Capacity means that your successor candidate has the intellectual, emotional and leadership potential to command the respect needed to be your successor.

• Do not jump to the conclusion that your successor must be your equal. Acknowledging that Superman has no equal, in far too many circumstances, the inability to find an equal has been the excuse for doing nothing.
• Capacity means that all other things considered, the successor has the intellectual and emotional ability to quickly learn the factual and leadership issues required to be a successor. Quickly being one year.
• If one year is not enough time for an individual to achieve journeyman leadership standing, then you have only identified a successor candidate. If this is the case, you need to accelerate the preparation of your candidate and identify a stop gap contingency plan.
• With only one or no candidates, capacity represents the first gate for evaluating Junior or recruiting an outsider. With the blessing of multiple candidates, capacity is one of the first criteria for narrowing the field.

In my next posting “Time Proven Criteria for Selecting Your Successor,”  I will discuss the remaining 2 keys: Competency and Commitment. 

Posted by Loyd Rawls on September 17, 2007 | Comments (0)