What’s New in Succession

Management?

Succession Management Seminar Series #1

October 21, 2010Jeanne SchulzeOffice of Human ResourcesOrganizational Effectiveness

What’s The Evidence?What’s The Evidence?

Finding innovative solutions to many of the challenges facing the United States and the world in the 21st century will depend upon a creative, knowledgeable, and highly skilled workforce. The application of knowledge and skills to these challenges will help maintain our country’s future economic prosperity and growth, foster social well-being, and assure our leadership position in the global economy. Undergraduate education is important to the creation of a stable economy because it provides students with foundational knowledge and work skills and prepares college graduates for a wide range of employment options. But it is graduate education that provides students with the advanced knowledge and skills that will secure our future intellectual leadership in the knowledge economy.

•Differences in the quality of leadership explains as much as 45%45% of an organization’s performance

How are How are WEWE

doing?doing?

Many organizatio

ns have seriousserious bench issues

Almost halfhalf of large companies and

institutions have no no meaningful meaningful management management

succession plansuccession plan

• 3% We develop people effectively• 10% We use job assignments as a key

developmental lever • 16% We know who our high

performers are • 23% We attract highly talented

people • 30% We’re good at feedback and

coaching• 75% We have insufficient talent or are chronically short across the board

McKinsey War for Talent Study

2002, Lominger Limited, All rights reserved

• Organizations must go go outsideoutside for talent• Shortage of strong choices strong choices for top

leadership positions• Too many top leaders who don’t don’t

succeedsucceed• Still promoting people to their level level

of incompetenceof incompetence• Development plans, if they are created,

are notnot implementedimplemented. • Our managers shy away from frank frank

discussionsdiscussions about needed improvements for their direct reports.

• “Succession Planning in Leading Companies” (Mahler Publishing, 1983) found in 1980’s1980’s

The Current State….

Why Leaders Fail?

“More than any other way, they fail by failing to put the right

people in the right job and the related failure to fix people

problems in time”

Charan & Colvin, Fortune, June 2002

So, what’s new in Succession

Management?• Not much!

The problem is not finding something new…

• The problem is implementing what is already well known.

We know…• The pipeline for developing talent

• The strategic and operational design issues to make succession work

• The intense issues, problems and challenges confronting us

• We know we need to attract, retain and develop talent

A LOOK AT THE BEST OF THE BEST

Current and Future Practices

Five Forces Reshaping the Global Economy: McKinsey 2010

1. Economic volatility is a permanent feature (The new normal)

2. Globalization 3. Digitization is transforming the

informational revolution requiring new ways of thinking

4. Increasingly global educational, customer and labor markets: students/workers/customers from anywhere at anytime

5. Increasing needs for security, risk management and global citizenship due to geopolitical instability

In short, we must prepare our future leaders for the

VUCA world ahead

In a VUCA world leaders need to be:

• Agile learners• Strategic and tactical• Emotionally intelligent• Inspiring• Fast and careful decision makers• Builders of teams• Influential• New technical competencies • And, create environments that drive

performance and engagement

How does this future world picture fit for us?

How does this future leadership picture fit for us?

Small groups

5 minutes

Learnings from the Best • Create better leaders: results, develop capabilities, a ready talent

pool

• Operate better in more complex environments

• Position themselves for the long term future

• Build cross-functional collaboration capability

• Treat talent management as a strategic asset (it takes an organization to raise a leader)

• Believe that ignoring leadership development is done at your own peril

• Manage & invest in development for a culture of leadership

• Address bigger and broader issues: social responsibility, women in sr. positions, easier to work from home, appreciation of global issues required for the job

Do leaders today have “the right

stuff?”© Copyright 2006 Robert W. Eichinger, All Rights Reserved

1. Intellectual Horsepower, 1st

2. Functional Skills

3. Integrity/Trust

4. Ethics/Values

5. Action Oriented

6. Perseverance

7. Customer Focus

8. Standing Alone

9. Drive for Results

10. Technical Learning

11. Managing Diversity

12. Boss Relationship

13. Comfort around VIPs

Top

13

Rank

Ordered

Out of

67

For

Mgr’s &

Exec’s

© Copyright 2002, Michael M. Lombardo & Robert W. Eichinger. All Rights Reserved

What don’t leaders have today that that

they need to they need to succeed in succeed in

the future?the future? © Copyright 2006 Robert W. Eichinger, All Rights Reserved

67. Developing People, lastlast

66. Personal Learning

65. Understanding Others

64. Dealing with Paradox

63. Confronting Direct Reports

62. Managing Vision/Purpose

61. Personal Disclosure

60. Managing Through Systems

59. Patience

58. Conflict Management

57. Directing Others

56. Motivating Others

55. Managing/Measuring Work

Bottom

13

Rank

Ordered

Out of

67

© Copyright 2002, Michael M. Lombardo & Robert W. Eichinger. All Rights Reserved

Five fatal flaws that lead to failure as a leader?

1.Inability to Learn from Mistakes

2.Lack of Core Interpersonal Skills

3.Lack of Openness to New or Different Ideas

4. Lack of Accountability5. Lack of Initiative

Zenger and Folkman, The Extraordinary Leader, 2002

Why do succession succession

efforts fail? efforts fail?

© Copyright 2006 Robert W. Eichinger, All Rights Reserved

They fail because…1.Managers prefer to do the

work of individual contributors over getting work done through others

2.Fear of having the difficult conversations

3.Time4.Not held accountable from

the top5.Skill: Don’t know how

If you start five years or even ten years before the top

leader is going to retire, it may be too late."

Ending the CEO Succession Crisis

Ram Charan HBR, Feb 2005

Something is seriously amiss in the business of developing and hiring the leaders of the future. Too many top leaders

fail in office; too many succession pipelines are bone

dry.

Food for Thought

In small groups:

What resonates with you?

What doesn’t?

What’s New in Succession

Management?

Succession Management Seminar Series #1

October 21, 2010