Management Succession Planning

Description of Management Succession Planning. Explanation.

Definition Management Succession Planning. Description.

Management Succession Planning is the process of ensuring that top-level management positions are filled with suitable skilled and prepared managers through either identifying and developing Management Talent within the organization (Career Management) or through recruiting suitable candidates from outside the organization.

In order to achieve this, replacement tables, development plans, lists of names have to be developed along with a succession management strategy, executive profiles, and organizational processes to identify potential, assess readiness, accelerate management development, assign management accountabilities and measure management succession success.

The system must be proactive in the sense that it should include planning for both regular succession (retirement, planned promotions) and for eventualities, such as illness, fatalities and resignation.

Benefits of a comprehensive Succession Planning Process

1. Smoother Transition. Assuming a leadership position in an organization places high demands on an individual and those demands may differ significantly from business to business. A highly tuned succession process can help to ensure that the incumbent leaders take significant responsibility for 'grooming' their heirs, ensuring a smoother transition.

2. Reduce Managerial Entrenchment. Well-managed succession programs have been shown to reduce the problem of a situation whereby CEO's or other prominent leaders refuse to step down even when they are performing badly or their retirement is long overdue.
3. Talent Development. Competent and respected leaders can affect staff commitment and talent attraction in a positive way. It is better to guide leaders through the business than recruit a stranger from the market.
4. Appreciation by Investors. Investors and customers are wising up to the need to recognize when a succession process is working. This is apparent when the process is able to provide a suitable successor, yet is flexible and sophisticated enough to recruit from the outside if the right skills are not available within.

Compare with: Employability  |  Employee Development  |  Career Management  |  Management Development  |  Mentoring  |  Coaching  |  Talent Management

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End of description Management Succession Planning. An explanation.