Succession planning
Succession planning has never been more important than in today’s multi-generation workforce. Believe it or not, 10,0000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day, and this trend is expected to continue until 2030. That’s a lot of Baby Boomers transitioning out of the workforce who need to be replaced. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough GenX or Millennial leaders capable of filling those shoes.
So what are you doing to develop your next-generation leaders and proactively prepare a business succession plan for your business? If you are fortunate enough to have a qualified next-gen leader within your ranks, that can greatly improve your chances for success in transitioning from one generation to the next but only if that leader is identified in time and properly groomed for the role. It is also imperative to support those Baby Boomer leaders in transition since they play such critical roles in the succession planning process. That is why at chiefexeccoach we provide both the developmental coaching next-gen leaders need to step up to the next level and the transition coaching retiring leaders need to successfully shift their management responsibilities to their successors.
What if you don’t expect your chief executives to retire for several years? You’ll want to take several key steps now to ensure the long-term viability of your business.
- Developmental coaching for your next-gen leader to gain greater self-awareness about his/her current leadership strengths as well as his/her gaps to perform at the next level.
- Transition coaching for your retiring business leaders to help them embrace their “third acts” in life and become mentors for their successors and other employees.
- Buy-sell and other shareholder agreements for co-owners to explicitly govern what will happen under different circumstances should one owner die or otherwise leave the business.
- Non-equity executive compensation and other performance incentive strategies to retain key persons, especially those who are identified as potential future successors.
- Overall roadmap and final exit strategy to provide a high-level timeline for the business succession process and transfer leadership and ownership from one generation to the next.
Don’t let this critical transition point pass you and your organization by. Many businesses are not able to make this transition because they don’t adequately plan for it. The longer you wait, the fewer options you’ll have available to you when your succession matters most!
