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Time Proven Criteria for Selecting Your Successor
September 19, 2007
As discussed in my prior posting Avoid Succession Hell – 4 Keys for Selecting Successors,the criteria for selecting a successor are:
- Availability
- Capability
- Competency
- Commitment
In my previous post, I focused on Availability and Capability, now let’s looks at the remaining 2 C’s: Competency and Commitment.
Competency
Potential is not the determining factor for a successor. They also must intellectually and emotionally display the ability to do the job. In evaluating your potential successors, remember, we are talking journeyman capacity not wizardry. The assumption is that with experience a successor could become a wizard and take the business to unimagined levels of productivity and efficiency. However, where I live on the ground level, if all your successor does is continue to provide sufficient leadership and management to meet strategic goals, humbly count yourself blessed.
Commitment
Unfortunately, availability, capacity and competency will not predictably continue to drive the business to the achievement of strategic goals, purely because “crap happens.” Therefore, the transfer of leadership and management control to a successor normally comes with problems and challenges.
Fifty percent of the families and businesses will have a befuddling series of crises associated with succession. Therefore, a successor must also be unconditionally committed. If conditions such as “assuming everyone cooperates,” are associated with the role of successor, Murphy’s Law of Succession will be validated: if it can go wrong, it will. To be confirmed as a successor, the only realistic attitudes are “give me your best shot” and “is that all you’ve got?” Total commitment to the strategic goals of the business is not an option; it is a fundamental criterion of a successor.
There you have it. The time proven criteria for assessing, evaluating and confirming a successor are: Availability, Capacity, Competency and Commitment. A candidate would not have to score tens in every category, but every compromise made in these four critical areas can spell big time trouble down the road.
Posted by Loyd Rawls on September 19, 2007 | Comments (0)
