Succession Planning: Don’t “To-Do” It for Later
I have yet to hear an association leader say something like, “Man, I love succession planning! Best part of the job.” Uh, uh. So lots of folks avoid it. They focus on the leadership responsibilities that clog their to-do lists that day, not next year. This seems especially true at nonprofits.
“I don’t have anyone in-house capable of taking over for me.” “Who knows what the board will want in their next executive director, so why start prepping someone now who could be all wrong later?” “I’m not planning to go for a lo-o-o-ng time. There’s no rush.”
Bill George, a Harvard professor and former CEO and chairman of the mammoth medical technology company Medtronic, isn’t standing for any such excuse but also doesn’t believe succession planning is up to the executive director alone.
“I think one of the reasons for a lot of the disasters [in corporations] in recent years, right up to the present moment, is because boards and directors are not focusing on leadership succession,” George said during a Thought Leader Forum held by Leadership Coach Academy recently. “They are focusing on getting and bringing in a ‘savior,’ if you will--hiring someone from a headhunter or a hotshot to run the company, and a lot of these people come in like Bob Nardelli did at Home Depot. They make a huge amount of change, get rid of all the people who know something about the business, and don’t really understand the essence of the business. I say, ‘Shame on boards of directors for doing that!’ I think boards of directors are, just simply, derelict in their duties when they do that.”
George points to Citigroup as an example of this, as well as Merrill Lynch, “where you have 550,000 employees and no leadership succession.”
Harsh. But you execs aren’t off the hook, either. “It is incumbent on any leader to develop succession, not just for immediate succession but looking many, many years down the road—10, 15, 20 years down the road. You develop people of all ages who can take over and run the organization going forward, and you have enough of them so that if someone drops out for health reasons or changes jobs or doesn’t work out, you have others to step up.
“The key is to have a leadership culture of great leaders coming up at all levels, not just on the top,” he concluded. “That’s why organizations like Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi Co., and General Electric have been historically successful—they have that kind of leadership development and culture.”
Hmmm, didn’t hear any nonprofits in that organizational list. And is it really a surprise? I wonder just how many of even our largest philanthropic/nonprofit organizations have a structured succession plan in place. It’s doubtful that the American Red Cross did (or does). I know that many leaders of micro-staffs and mid-size groups don’t, because I hear them worry about it. And I listen to complaints from staff struggling in organizations whose founders refuse to ever leave, even though they no longer have the correct skills to take their beloved nonprofit to the next level (“No one understands this mission and organization better than I do.” That may be true but, hey, you’re not immortal. Nor is every board willing to allow the reins to remain in the same hands indefinitely.).
Execs ready to give succession planning a go might start by reading “Succession Planning for Nonprofit Leaders” and “Elements of a Good Nonprofit Leader Succession Plan” on ASAE & The Center’s new nonprofit Web site. A simple search on ASAE & The Center’s Web site will turn up close to 70 other articles and materials to help, too.
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