Succession planning - have you thought about it?

Succession planning is a critical management tool whatever the size of your business because without it your organisation may not survive!

So what is succession planning? In simple terms....who is going to do your job when you are not there any more!  This does not mean that you are about to be made redundant or sacked but it is good business practice to consider who will do what you do if you are not here.

It may not be about developing people but you may be faced with a situations affected by external issues. Many organisations, for example, now have in their risk register & planning process what will happen if a group of key workers win the lottery.  This is because the likelihood is that the people will leave work, thus giving the organisation a great deal of problems to fill that gap, especially if they are all members of the same team.

The Harvard Business Review suggests that Succession planning should be called Succession Development as plans do not help people learn about the new job so, yes it should be about developing people who have the potential.This has to begin with regular performance reviews and frank discussions about peoples' aspirations and capabilities.  It is no good if you have identified that George is the ideal candidate to succeed you, if George is quite happy in his current role and has no wish to be promoted.  An even worse scenario would be that you encourage George into thinking he can succeed you when it is clearly beyond his capability.

An even worse crime that you may commit as a line manager is not to consider this at all because you do not know where you are going or you are quite happy in your current role.  That does not stop you being responsible for developing your team, even if that means that they eventually will leave you and go and work elsewhere....that is a natural process.

So we as managers have to be clear about what qualities, competencies, skills & knowledge people should have to be able to carry out a specific role effectively.  It is then important to identify the gaps between what you require and what the person actually has and then develop that person in those areas.

The development can take many different forms and take much time to happen.  Remember it does not just mean 'sending them on a course' or getting an MBA or other such qualification, but it may mean the individual spending time with key people & departments in the business to gain a sound working knowledge of the whole business.  It is also good practice for the identified individual to have a mentor (not their line manager) so that their development can be guided effectively and a realistic time frame needs to be given.  Obviously there should then be regular reviews of the development process.

This is not a job that you as a line manager should be doing in isolation but in conjunction with your HR support as well as other line managers so that you can begin to develop a pool of people who have the potential for more senior positions in the business. Critical for you as line manager is your ability to coach and develop your people but also to recognise that for you to succeed your boss you have to work at your own development & knowledge gaps....so don't forget to look after yourself as well!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Trainer centric or learner centric training programmes?

An interesting discussion took place this week between a number of trainers, me being one of them. The question we debated passionately was that of course design.....should it be learner centred or tutor centred?

Clearly learner centred has to be our main goal as trainers because when people are engaged in the learning & can see the personal benefit they will be more focused & involved in the session.  So then you think about assessment which we have to do to

a) check that learning is taking place during the session (aka formative assessment)

b) end of session assessment (aka summative assessment)

Both of these can be done based on the input you & the delegates have been engaged in during the session.  The difficulty comes in your pre-course assessment.

The purpose of pre-course assessment is to gauge the level at which your learners are so that you can design a course that meets their needs. What happens if the pre-course assessment is only done on Day 1 of the programme which has already been designed?

Here we have the classic training dilemma. How do you advertise & sell a course? We all know that the course should be designed around the needs of the learner but we don't know this so you, the trainer, has to decide on the content and learning outcomes based on your own skills & knowledge.  Then you advertise the programme and when you meet the delegates on day one you may realise that you will have to flex your skills and knowledge up or down or both based on the knowledge of the people in the group.

In an ideal world trainers would like to run a course that is totally based on the learners needs and thus the first session of the programme would involve identifying their needs. Then it would be up to the skills of the trainer to then deliver a suitable programme to meet those needs.  However how would you sell that? Hence the dilemma that we have as trainers!!

In my opinion the more emphasis that is put on achieving set criteria the more trainer centric the learning gets which reduces the creativity and flexibility for the trainer.  More importantly it may mean that the training that the learner is given is not appropriate to their needs so the whole event may have been a waste of time and money.

So as a manager invest some of your time at the front end of this process correctly identifying the needs of your people and then talk to the trainer to ensure that the course will meet those needs....it will make it more rewarding for all of us involved!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk

Merger? What is your role as a leader?

Bringing two businesses together is a tough ask of any leader in any size organisation.  So how do you get it right? What are your responsibilities?

Well, you could do some research and visit and talk to other people who have done what you are about to do...you will not be the first to merge companies like this.  So you can learn from what worked with them and what did not and then you can avoid the latter!

You can also do desktop research, which is quicker than face to face but you cannot interrogate the websites you find to get to the nub of the issues.

In my experience the single biggest issue in the bringing together of two organisations is that of communication.  Yes, that old chestnut!  But it is true, and borne out again recently when I met some of the people directly impacted on by a merger.  When I asked them how they felt about the situation I got answers such as 'frustrated' 'scared' 'helpless' and 'under-valued'.  I could go on because the list was quite extensive but you get the gist!  When I asked why they were feeling like this it boiled down to a lack of communication by the senior management which means that people's jobs are changing, the location of the workplace is changing and their line manager is changing but no-body has told them how it is changing and what the consequences of those changes will be.

Sure, if you are familiar with the change curve (my blog on April 4) you would say that they are still resisting but what I found interesting was that when you explored their feelings they wanted to discuss the options and what the future held, but no-body could tell them what that was. The lack of clarity around job roles & responsibilities for the future (less than 2 months away) would concern me if I was a shareholder in this business! There appeared to be no plan!

I bet if I went to the senior management team there is a plan and it is all beautifully presented and fits a classic merger format.  My issue is that NO-ONE is sharing that information with the people at the coal face!!

So what about you as the leader, what should you be doing?  Well in my opinion you should be communicating on a regular basis with your team. Even if there is nothing to tell them, that is what you tell them!! You should be pushing upwards to get more information and you should be feeding upwards the feelings that you and your team are experiencing.

We are all human and therefore feel threatened by something as massive as a merger but we as leaders in our organisation have a responsibility to the people in our team so talk to them!!

Thanks for your time, Suzanne Unsworth

www.rubusassociates.co.uk