Whose Succession Plan Am I On?

One of my colleagues was recently navigating comprehensive management changes at her current organization (a global financial services firm). She had a solid working relationship with her manager and had regular dialogues with him about promotion opportunities, career advancement and specific projects that she was leading. As a sponsor (see my article on sponsorship, "Beyond Mentorship"), he was pretty good.

One day the two were chatting about the management changes. Some senior people were leaving and others were moving into new roles. My colleague and her manager were mapping out the moves into succession plans, identifying who was being positioned to assume more senior management roles in the future. Her manager was also moving into a more senior role, and she knew that he was being positioned to assume responsibility for a division at some point.

My colleagues then asked him “whose succession plan am I on?” He was surprised at this question and didn’t have an immediate answer.

Succession planning involves identifying key positions within an organization and developing a plan to ensure that the business will be filled with prepared and capable leaders.[1] It creates a talent pipeline to prepare employees to fill vacancies as they arise. It allows the organization time to increase efforts on training and coaching[2] to ensure that the successor is ready to rise up when necessary. Succession planning also fosters a shared vision of the organization’s future among existing leadership and their successors.

Succession planning is more than just assigning a key role to someone that will lead to more responsibility when a senior person leaves. It’s about identifying top talent that an organization wants to retain and developing them into an essential resource that the organization will need in the future. It encourages retention and promotes career growth. It’s sponsorship at the highest level.

However, most of the research on succession planning focuses on the organization and managers and not on the employee. There isn’t much research on how to get onto a succession plan. By asking this direct question, my colleague was demonstrating to her manager that she wanted to be considered as a key player in the organization and part of the talent pipeline. She also subtly conveyed her ambition to assume more responsibility that will lead to a more senior role.

Asking this question firmly planted the idea in her manager’s mind that he should position her for assuming a more senior role and plan for her training and development. And it was a direct reminder to include her name in the current management discussions.

This simple, straightforward question carried multiple subtle messages. For my colleague, she expressed her desire to take on more responsibility. And her manager was now encouraged to seriously consider her future role in the organization. She may or may not be satisfied with the answer, but at least she started the conversation.

So my question for you is – have you asked your manager whose succession plan you are on?

[1] ? “What is succession planning and why does it matter?”, Nicole Schreiber-Shearer, gloat.com, January 10, 2024

[2] ? “10 trackable succession planning metrics for any organization”, Tali Sachs, hibob.com, March 14, 2024