If I win the lottery...

When discussing succession planning, people often talk about who would step in for someone if they were "hit by a bus". I've always preferred to ask what would happen if someone won the lottery. A slightly brighter picture. ;)

A little while back, Phil suggested a post on "succession planning and development". Within the organization I lead we have a goal this year to formalize this process, so the timing is good to share some thoughts and get your input.

1. Keep it simple - especially in the beginning of the process. No need to create a detailed filtering criteria for who should/shouldn't be nominated for development. The more gates at this stage of the process the less likely it is that people will nominate anyone. Focus on executing a simple set of steps, not spending a bunch of time planning and filtering without ever talking to the people who need development
2. Make a quick list of people to develop. My company has a great method for doing this. Start by enumerating all the positions reporting to you and then for each one list people you can think of who are "ready now", "1-2 years", and "3-5 years" away from being able to take on those roles
3. Put more names in your list. Think about your network outside just the people who are currently in your direct reporting line. Look within the company, outside the company, at customers, and prior employees. Anyone you've worked with who was impressive.
4. Now that you have a list, let people know they're in the list! This is something that doesn't happen routinely, but I've found can yield great benefits, both immediate and longer term. Even if you think someone won't be interested in the role you'd be surprised how good they may feel to hear "you're listed in our succession plans as a person we think would be great at doing my role".
5. Now that people know they're in the list, start with just two actions for everyone in the list:
   - delegate one significant responsibility to them
   - set up a formal mentoring relationship for them
6. Measure the outcomes. Set up some simple metric which focuses on the outcomes, not the process. For example, "number of promotions from within the succession list each year"
7. Repeat often. Set regular milestones to review the list, the metric, and the actions for each person in the list

Now over to you - what have you seen work? What didn't go so well? Any references that you've found valuable?

Some references that you may find useful:

• 4 Tips for Efficient Succession Planning
• Manager Tools Podcast - Staff Meeting Delegation and Succession Planning
  Manager Tools Podcast - How to be an Effective Mentor

Focus Grasshopper!

Back in http://leadershippubtalk.blogspot.com/2009/03/it-takes-village-to-raise-leader.html, anonymous said the following: "A leader is completely FOCUSED on achieving a clearly defined mission. The leader knows where they are going. A person who refuses to accept defeat in reaching their goal. A leader is a WINNER, even though they face defeat they refuse to accept a loss as failure, losses are setbacks on the way to ultimate mission accomplishment.

This post is devoted to focus. A few of my own thoughts:

• For a leader focus is as much about repetition in communication as it is individual concentration and dedication. Repeating the same message in multiple ways is critical for a common direction across an organization
• Good to Great provides an excellent framework for strategic focus - where the "hedgehog concept" is introduced. Namely, having a deep understanding of the intersection between three areas in the form of a simple, crystalline concept that defines what an organization is striving to achieve. The three areas are:
  1. What you can be best in the world at (note that this is not necessarily the current core competancies)?
  2. What you are passionate about?
  3. What drives your economic engine (what's the denominator that profit is measured against? eg profit per customer visit - use cash flow instead of profit for the public sector)?
• Focus without listening and feedback can be dangerous. What measures or feedback mechanisms can you put in place to make sure you're not focusing on bringing down your organization?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to achieve focus, good books you've read on the topic, or any instances where you've seen focus as an issue. Post away!