Is Succession Management more important than Networking?

This is the subject matter that you have to ensure you are practising it all the time if you want to move up the corporate ladder. You can only stay on current job position and manage the same portfolio for years if you failed to grow your successor.

Is this sound familiar to you? This is always what the bosses or managers been telling us when come to performance appraisal time. Yes, I am agreeing with their statement if I plan to stay with the company or the team for longer period. Or, no, this is applesauce to me as I just want to get the bonus and get out of the company soonest possible right after the bonus pay out. 

Human management is always the most difficult thing that no one on the earth has a standard and effective method which is always applicable in any circumstances. You may find a lot of recommendations and suggestions for human management but is that the case always applicable to you?

This is why many people find that it is easier to get a replacement rather than a successor. Money is always be the case to resolve most of the problem arising from staff resignation since spending money is easier than spending time to groom a person. Loyalty is always a doubt to most of us.

However, finding a replacement is just a short-term solution as the person may not fit exactly to your requirement and he is always demanding higher salary and better staff welfare. Thus, a good networking is crucial in this corporate world as it allows you to have an access to a pool of talented people and also providing you an opportunity to promote yourself in case you are searching for a better job. Do you agree?

No doubt networking is very important but I still prefer to groom someone that has great potential regardless the loyalty issue as my satisfaction will be perpetual if he or she is success at the end. You may refer to the tips for Succession Management below for a start.

Succession Management is required time and effort. It can be divided into 4 cycles:

1.       Identify potential candidate from the existing talents pool and assess level of readiness.

2.       Assess candidate’s strengths and competency gap.

3.       Career development actions plan to bridge the competency gap.

4.       Monitor and evaluate career development progress.

Here are some guides:

Step 1 - Potential Candidate Identification and Readiness

Know your team’s strength and identify the right candidate for each of the key position. You need to determine whether the key position has one or more persons ready to assume the roles and responsibilities of the position. It is important not to rely on the same person for multiple positions especially if the position is at high impact and high risk.

Step 2 - Assessment of Candidate’s Strengths and Competency

Knowing the strengths and competency of your candidate will allow you to focus on performance development and measurement where it is needed. You need to recognize and understand the competency of the key position and prioritize the competency gap of candidate for development. It is important to pay attention to leadership skills, people management and behavioural strengths for developing future leaders.

When assessing the candidate’s strength, it is important to balance up the following two aspects:

a) Performance which is the effectiveness and efficiency to carry out current roles and responsibilities.

b) Potential which is the ability to assume a bigger and more complex role.

Step 3 - Career Development Actions Plan and Implementation

Career development focuses on candidate’s career interests, future career opportunities, career development options, possible barriers to career movement and is required to assist candidate in setting appropriate career goals. Candidate should work out his career development actions plan in consultation with you and carry out the development plan.

Development of actions plan is designed to facilitate discussion between the potential candidate and you to clarify the work performance to be improved.

A scheduled meeting possible on monthly basis shall be held to discuss the following areas:

a)      Identify and specify the support from you, trainings and resources required.

b)      State specific areas for improvement and define the expected results

c)       Specify required actions to be taken in order to improve the performance

d)      Both on-the-Job training and formal training

e)      Engagement in functional-related events such as meeting, roundtable discussion, projects, etc.

f)       Exposure to cross-functional roles as this will increase the potential perspective of the staff 

Step 4 - Career Development Progress Assessment

To assess the impact of the succession management and effectiveness of the career development actions plan implemented to close the competency gap. The career development actions plan and result should be reviewed on quarterly or half-yearly basis to assess whether the objectives have been achieved and to identify areas for further improvement.

Hope the above tips help.