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Succession Planning

Planning for succession is a crucial step in protecting the continuity of an organization.  Succession is best thought of as a continuing process, not a one-time event.  It can be looked at through a variety of lenses.

Analyze
Evolving Organizational Purpose & Changing Leadership Capability Needs

Succession planning can be a little like driving the car and changing the tires at the same time.  How will the enterprise need to adjust over the next few years to remain relevant and in demand?  Is the marketplace changing?  Technology changing? How will the company’s purpose or deliverables change to stay relevant?

The skills and abilities of current leadership may not represent the blend needed to accomplish the vision for the future.  What skills and abilities must the next leader bring in order to drive results in a changing, dynamic landscape?

 

Determine
Internal or External
Succession Strategy

Many factors drive the decision to look internally or externally, or both, for the next senior leader.  The internal or external decision may also vary by role within an organization.  It might be very possible, for example, to grow a new head of sales, but very difficult to grow a new CEO.  We serve as the consulting partner for dialoguing and resolving these scenarios and partnering to create and execute the plan.   If talent must be added from the outside, what is the right entry point?  How will the right talent be sourced?  What person will bring the right cultural fit? How can onboarding or scaling support success? This is where Executive Search can become extremely valuable. Or, if a talent can instead be readied from the inside, what experiences, exposure or additional learning is required, and in what timeframe to show readiness and earn the confidence of decision makers and to achieve a seamless transition.

The Malone Group has experience in providing answers to these questions and more.  We create and implement tailored succession plans to minimize risk and increase the likelihood of seamless transitions.  We build confidence among Boards of Directors regarding succession direction.  Our consultants have designed and executed succession strategies for many types of firms from Fortune 100 to local not-for-profits.  We partner every step of the way.  We bring along our expertise in executive assessment, executive coaching, leadership development, and executive search to provide broadly encompassing succession solutions.

The Succession Planning efforts of The Malone Group can help:

  • Define or clarify future direction, strategy, culture and goals
  • Identify a leadership profile: Required competencies, capabilities and experiences
  • Assess and validate bench strength
  • Improve the diversity of the pool
  • Build a better continuous pipeline
  • Develop and ready high potential talent and “best bets”
  • Best align the talent pool with with organizational strategy and direction
  • Fulfill a plan for a very specific succession need

For more information please contact Sharon Malone, President, The Malone Group at
(860) 674-9325 or sharon@themalonegrp.com.