Succession

This past week was the beginning of the American Football season. Unfortunately, several quarterbacks were injured during the opening games (sorry for those fantasy football owners who had Tom Brady, Yikes). Some teams were prepared with a solid backup, while some had backups that have very little experience.

This reminded me of how important succession planning is for a business leader. Do you really know that your top performers will be staying around? What happens if your best performer walks out the door? Are you prepared? What do you do? You need to constantly be thinking about what if scenarios and have a short and long term plan in place. I keep a notebook (actually it is black) with notes about leadership planning with some what if scenarios (luckily, I did not have to go to very often).

Usually, the top performers are the ones that you probably fail to talk to as much because they are performing so well and your time is limited so you typically focus on "putting out the fires" and on areas of poorer performance. Do you know think the competitors know about who your top performers are? Guess again. Make time, whether a quick phone call, or a lunch to stay in touch with your top performers to gauge the pulse of them.

It is also a good practice to spend quality time at your leadership meetings on people and succession plans, including asking your direct reports, who would they recommend as their replacements.

Be proactive as you dont want to end up having a losing season because you were not prepared.