THOUGHTS ON: Succession – Chuck Morris

Succession

BY CHUCK MORRIS

Are you retiring soon? The thought of heading out to one of the nearby lakes to try and catch a trout sounds pretty good – especially if you can go whenever you feel like it! Or the golf course; some of the best times to get on the greens are when you are at work. It would really be nice to be able to be one of those people you see on the greens as you drive by to your next meeting.

When you do leave, who is going to do your job? How about when your maintenance manager leaves, your custodial supervisor, or your electrical foreman? You get the picture – who will move up to fill those vacancies? Have you even thought of it? You should be thinking about it all the time!

Succession planning is a major issue and if the statisticians are right about baby boomers, many of us will be digging out the fishing rod real soon. If we are not prepared, we can be caught off-guard. It would be foolish to think that, “Oh, we’ll just post outside the industry as there are a lot of people out there that would love to work here.” Hang on, folks! That is not always the case. Especially once you get away from the larger urban centres; not everyone wants to live in communities that are miles from major centres or miles from friends and family!

It is imperative we look inward first. Who do we have employed right now who is already a ‘Shining Star’, or with some coaching and mentoring will

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WWW.CENTAURPRODUCTS.COM WW MOC.STCUDORPRUATNEC.W 1 888 430 3300 00330348881 become someone who could succeed? It is not difficult to recognize someone who is talented. I have seen many people work through the system and in fact, have coached a few myself, only to see them move on up to replace someone who left. It can be done. We all need to get involved and ensure it is done!

Do you have a plan to support employee expectations? Can your organization support necessary training and development? Is the work environment supportive? Have you a plan in place to ensure knowledge transfer? Have you implemented accountability measures?

These are all very important questions that you need to answer, and those answers need to be part of the plan. You not only want to support internal candidates for future movement, you need to be sure they are receiving whatever it is that your succession plan has in place. Don’t wait; the time to act is now. The longer you hesitate, the quicker the days will rush by and one day when you do wake up to the fact that this is important, it will be too late. If external applicants are not a fit, you may end up hiring an inferior candidate who will consume much of your time and still prove to be fruitless; or you will overload someone to the point they cannot do their job effectively.

This is important; talk about it. Begin by identifying what you need to do to start a plan. There are a great many resources out there; you do not have to re-invent the wheel. Speak to your peers in your industry; see what they have in place.

Did I tell you about that large trout I caught last week…?