Healthcare organizations need to have the right leaders in the right roles at the right times. Yet most leaders are not sufficiently proactive and disciplined about creating and implementing an effective succession plan. This gap between the recognized need for succession planning and what happens in practice is not unique to healthcare leaders, but is common among leaders in other industries, too. For example, Routch, Monahan, and Doherty(1) share the troubling findings of Deloitte’s leadership succession planning study across industries. They say, “While 86 percent of leaders believe leadership succession planning is an ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ priority, only 14 percent believe they do it well.” The Deloitte study found that most organizations are thwarted or derailed from succession planning because they fail to recognize and address the impact of human behavior on the succession planning process. Routch, et al., explain, “More often than not, we found that companies [and leaders] were either avoiding succession planning altogether or were taking a dispassionate, process-oriented approach that minimizes, or even ignores, the very real impact that it has on the people involved.”
The most obvious benefit of succession planning is that it will provide your healthcare organization with a steady pipeline of qualified leaders ready to step into new roles as needed. But there’s more to it than that. The following sections explore the many reasons that succession planning matters, and then, what you need to do to create and implement an effective leadership succession plan.
What is Succession Planning and Why Does it Matter?
Succession planning is the process an organization uses to ensure that every critical position is occupied by an employee with the right skills and experience. It aims to ensure workforce continuity by identifying and preparing suitable candidates so that positions aren’t left vacant.
Organizations often focus succession planning among members of the senior leadership team. However, Orgvue(2) urges, “Succession planning should take a broader ‘root and branch’ approach that promotes candidates through the ranks, rather than rely on recruitment.” This is particularly important today because many of the most in-demand skills are in short supply and expensive to acquire, Orgvue says.
Succession planning will help to future-proof your healthcare organization by ensuring its continuity and performance, particularly during times of shifting leadership and change. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)(3) explains, “Even when there is no identifiable successor within an organization, succession planning can help identify the knowledge, skills, and training needed in a future external candidate.” Succession planning also is a process that organizations use to safeguard against lengthy and costly talent recruitments. Gillis, Daniel, and Snider(4) explain, “The hole created when an employee leaves his or her position can be profound, even at lower levels.” Replacing employees can be difficult and costly, especially in industries with noted talent shortages and skills gaps, and it can take a long time to get a replacement employee to full productivity. A lack of succession planning can cripple or sink smaller organizations that don’t have qualified internal candidates from which to choose, Gillis, et al., warn.
There are many reasons that leadership succession planning matters. It can provide your organization with many benefits beyond a steady stream of qualified leaders. For instance, it can:
Keep you ahead of the curve. You will want to be proactive, not reactive, when you must replace a key member of your leadership team. The process often takes time. For example, Harrell(5) suggests that effective planning “takes years, not months” for organizations that are planning for a new CEO. So, when is it time to start thinking about a succession plan for a CEO or other top leadership position? Ideally, Harrell says, organizations should start planning for the next CEO “the moment a new CEO takes charge.”
Bolster your organization’s reputation as a talent destination. The best job applicants will be attracted to organizations known to promote from within. Therefore, Gillis, et al., suggest, being known for your succession planning may help you to recruit more and better talent for all-level positions. Additionally, the Indeed Editorial Team(6) suggests that becoming a talent destination can help you retain your top performers by giving them “a clear career pathway.” That, in turn, can boost employee engagement and help them to feel more valued.
Support your diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Leaders can address diversity gaps in their organizations and promote an inclusive workplace culture by prioritizing internal talent development and advancement. They can integrate diversity into their succession planning to ensure equitable access to career growth and to strengthen future leadership with diverse voices. This is highly desirable. Orgvue explains, “Identifying and promoting high-potential individuals from diverse backgrounds helps break barriers and enhances decision-making through varied perspectives.” Routch, et al., add that a more diverse portfolio of leaders will be “a natural outcome of an objective, unbiased identification process.”
Help you deliver uninterrupted excellence. Orgvue suggests that effective succession planning will provide smoother business operations that will benefit everyone, including your patients.
Maintain mission-critical knowledge. Having no identifiable succession plan for critical roles poses an enormous risk to the organization. Healthcare organizations cannot afford to lose critical information every time an employee leaves. NIH asks, “If your organization lost its most critical employees today, would you have a successor with the knowledge, training, and skills needed to fill their shoes?”
Preserve brand integrity and reputation. Healthcare organizations can be particularly vulnerable when they have vacancies in publicly visible positions. Orgvue warns, “There are many examples of failed C-level succession plans that have caused substantial reputational damage to the organizations concerned.” Organizations that place emphasis on internal succession to senior positions may be able to minimize these threats. Leaders who are promoted from within are more likely than external hires to understand “what’s right for the business and its people,” Orgvue says.
Future-proof your staff. Organizations may find it particularly challenging to deal with a vacancy during a time of crisis. Routch, et al., suggest that effective succession planning can create, “a ‘future-proofed’ workforce” that is better prepared to thrive in dynamic and different conditions.
Reveal vulnerabilities and highlight skills gaps. Succession planning provides a risk assessment that will uncover vulnerabilities and gaps in your workforce and skills base. Orgvue suggests, “By reviewing your current organizational structure by department, you can begin to see points of weakness that could impact your business strategy.”
Protect your leadership legacy. Effective leaders who vacate their roles will want to ensure that the good work they’ve done is carried on. That means that they will want to leave their positions in the hands of well-chosen successors. O’Brien(7) warns, “If by the end of your tenure you’ve failed to deliver stellar successors, your many other achievements … will be diminished, and your legacy will be tarnished.” Legacy-building succession planning requires leaders’ personal engagement early in their tenure. O’Brien says, “It requires a robust process that leaves little to chance, one that is intentional, well-thought-out and affords opportunities to develop your successor, or even better, several successors.”
Why Is Succession Planning Difficult?
We can point to several reasons to explain why leaders who know the value of succession planning don’t do it well. Chief among these is that it takes time. Leadership succession planning is a long-term discipline in a short-term world. A good succession plan will require years to bear fruit, while leaders typically are rewarded based largely on short-term accomplishments. It’s also a big task that will be added to a very long to-do list. Miles(8) warns, “And because it’s not perceived as urgent, it may keep being moved to the back burner.”
In some organizations, it’s not clear who is accountable for succession planning. For example, there may be no clarity around whether the responsibility of planning for and grooming a successor sits with HR or with business or functional leaders. According to Routch, et al., “Many of our surveyed leaders had no idea who was ultimately accountable for succession planning in their organizations.” Routch, et al., share that a current chair of the board for a large nonprofit in Deloitte’s study said, “Even boards are often unclear on how CEO and executive succession accountability should be set—is it one of the committees? The whole board? An individual? In many cases there is no clarity for it and no one addresses it.”
Leadership succession planning also can be a highly charged and sensitive topic. It can be uncomfortable to discuss a leader’s departure or another person’s capabilities, or lack thereof, to step into the role. Boardspan(9) explains, “Succession planning brings up emotions and often requires uncomfortable conversations.” Conflict-avoidant individuals may be reluctant to start the succession planning process. Furthermore, some leaders may be vague about when they are planning to vacate their positions and may not want to talk about it. Miles suggests, “For some, succession planning may be seen as a lack of confidence in your current leadership team. And executives may hesitate to raise the issue of succession planning for fear of being perceived as having intentions of resigning.” This destabilizing dynamic can have a negative effect on your succession planning efforts.
Another challenge to leadership succession planning is that good data are not always available, or are ignored, leading to subjective decisions. Many organizations still default to subjective or political succession decisions based on likeability and similar factors. Routch, et al., report, “We heard many examples of organizations investing in obtaining solid data (for example, through an executive assessment), only to have it thrown out and replaced by pure opinion.” As one executive from a large healthcare company in the Deloitte study lamented, “Even with a lot of data, subjectivity and politics come into play.”
Leadership succession planning is further challenged because many organizations lack a methodology or the know-how needed to do it. Routch, et al., found this to be the case among their research participants. One of their leaders reported, “Boards and senior executives don’t know how to succession plan. If you ask them about financial oversight or executive compensation, they’re clear on how it works. But ask them about succession planning, and you get blank stares.”
Finally, leadership succession planning is about change, which many people will resist or reject in its own right. Human beings typically prefer to feel comfortable. Change thrust upon us often is unwelcome because people prefer to stick with the status quo if that status quo is one they like. Miles says, “There will be people who oppose any new initiative [such as succession planning] simply because it’s new.”
Effective Succession Planning: 25 Strategies
There is no way for any of us to know with certainty what the future holds. Yet, succession planning requires us to prepare for it. Here are 25 leadership succession planning strategies to help you prepare your organization for growth, challenges, and leadership vacancies, even if you don’t know precisely what your future needs will be.
Establish accountability. Many organizations are unclear about who is accountable for succession planning. Who is responsible for identifying and developing top talent—the CEO, CHRO, direct managers, or board of directors? Find out if you don’t know. Someone must be accountable for succession planning and have the time and resources they will need to do it well, or it may wither and die on the vine. If there is no one accountable, make that your first priority.
Focus on preparing your organization for the future. That may seem obvious. However, Routch, et al., warn, “Ironically, many organizations build their succession processes around the needs of current roles, not what those roles will look like in the future.” What is projected for your organization’s future? What talent will you need? What is projected for your community? Do you anticipate that your demographics will shift? How? What is likely to happen to your infrastructure in the next 20 years? Effective succession planning focuses on these concerns. A future orientation is needed and makes succession planning discussions seem less threatening and more palatable for incumbent leaders who may fear for their self-preservation.
Foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Remain open about whom you consider for moving up as you project your organization’s future needs. Actively train your succession planning team to be more inclusive and help them uncover unconscious biases. Miles suggests, “A fresh viewpoint can sometimes be as valuable as an experienced one.”
Make succession planning worthwhile for incumbent leaders. Asking them to engage fully in succession planning without an emphasis on their own interests is likely to result in apathy and avoidance. Organizations can make their incumbent leaders’ participation financially worthwhile so that they will focus on succession. Routch, et al., report, “Many leading organizations craft short- and long-term incentives that reward leaders for creating environments that develop successors, not just identify them.”
Prioritize your talent needs. Outline your organization’s objectives so you can best determine which jobs to train for. Identify positions that will be most in need of successors. The NIH suggests, “Two factors to consider when prioritizing the positions are vulnerability and criticality.” Which positions have no identifiable successor? They are the ones most vulnerable to knowledge loss, the NIH says. A position is deemed critical if a vacancy would hinder your organization’s ability to accomplish its mission. The NIH adds, “Critical positions often extend beyond senior leadership roles.”
Analyze each position. It will be difficult to identify successors if you don’t have a solid grip on what the position is. Consider what each position is now and what it can look like in the future. Atlassian(10) says, “While you might think you already understand what employees are up to each day, you’ll probably be surprised by how many tasks and responsibilities are flying under the radar.” Ask the person who holds the position what they do if you don’t know. Head off their concerns that their jobs may be in jeopardy. Atlassian suggests, “Make it clear that succession planning isn’t focused on replacing them right now.” Explain that you are asking questions about the position as a reference guide that will be a huge help as you plan for your team to grow.
Prepare for different types of departures. A retirement announced three years before the date a person leaves differs significantly from a sudden vacancy after a firing or unexpected illness. Rubenstahl(11) suggests that you consider the risk of turnover for each position and that your succession plan account for both planned and emergency departures. Rubenstahl suggests, “To mitigate this risk, understand what skills team members who work closely with the specific role already have and what complementing talents are needed or desired in a successor.”
Break succession planning into a series of shorter-term steps. Large tasks become less daunting and more manageable when you work in steps. Routch, et al., describe a leader in the Deloitte study who explained, “We’ve broken [succession] into smaller pieces to create more focus and depth. We have nine executive talent review sessions per year—so we’re doing this often and proactively.” Leaders who regard succession planning as part of their day-to-day tasks are likely to be more engaged in the shorter term while proactively pursuing long-term success.
Assess potential. Don’t automatically earmark employees for training and promotion because they are the ones closest in rank for the roles that need to be filled. Gillis, et al., say, “Other promising employees should be chosen if their skills have the most potential.”
Focus on the requirements of the position. It’s tempting to promote employees who have worked hard and been loyal. However, they must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to fill the role. Don’t fit the job to the person. Avoid succession plans where candidates are predetermined before a competitive process. The NIH says, “‘Pre-selecting’ and ‘pre-determining’ should be avoided.” The NIH adds, “It is important to remind candidates that the position is not guaranteed to any one candidate because it depends on performance, and an employee may be removed from consideration should their performance fall below expectations.”
Guard your organization’s reputation. The stakes are especially high when you are succession planning for publicly visible positions. If your succession plan is to recruit a senior executive from the outside, take steps to ensure that the new appointee understands the values that bind your organization together, your culture, and the brand you have created. A new leader’s rash attempts to impose change and make a mark could undermine your healthcare organization’s core purpose and neglect the needs and expectations of your patients and employees. Orgvue suggests, “By placing the emphasis on internal succession to senior positions, these threats have less chance of materializing, as senior leaders are more likely to understand what’s right for the business and its people.”
Be transparent. Distrust can ensue when succession planning is held too close to the vest. Organizations will be most successful when they use simple, accessible, and transparent data collection processes for succession planning and clearly communicate their succession decisions using this data. Let your employees know what is going on so they don’t fill in the gaps with speculation, rumors, and gossip.
Conduct trial runs when possible. A trial run occurs when potential successors assume some of the responsibilities of new roles while continuing to work in their current roles. That will give you an opportunity to gauge whether the person is ready and if they are going to be a good fit. Also, Gillis, et al., say, “This practice will allow the successor to gain potentially valuable experience.” Half(12) adds, “Don’t wait until a crisis to test whether an employee has the right stuff to assume a more advanced role. The employee will …appreciate the opportunity to shine. And you can assess whether that person might need some additional training and development.”
Keep it simple. Organizations sometimes add excessively complex assessment criteria to the succession planning process to improve the quality of the assessment. However, Goldsmith(13) warns, “Some of these criteria are challenging even for behavioral scientists to assess, much less the average line manager.” Remember that the planning process is only a precursor to focus the development. Goldsmith says, “It doesn’t need to be perfect,” adding that more sophisticated assessments can be built into the development process and administered by a competent coach.
Prepare new hires for succession planning. Some leaders may regard succession planning as a threat. They may wonder if you are trying to replace them, or they may fear that talking about succession planning with you will put that idea into your head or suggest that they are thinking about resigning. Miles suggests that you begin talking about succession planning with your key executives during the onboarding process. Tell them that you want them to stay long-term, but that succession planning is part of your organization’s strategy and that you will want them to participate in it. Miles adds, “Any strong and good leader will recognize the importance of succession planning.”
Tell the successor. Don’t identify a successor for a key role within your organization without telling that person. Leyshon(14) calls this an “age-old” mistake. She says, “Bosses too frequently utter the words, ‘But I had great plans for you’ when the earmarked successor hands their notice in.” Informing an identified successor that they have been earmarked for a potential future role opens a conversation with the employee to establish if they are even interested in a future with your organization, and how they feel about the particular role you have in mind for them, Leyshon says. Telling them what you have in mind may help them to feel that they are valued and to stay with your organization longer. If not, learning their intentions will tell you that you need to revise your succession plan.
Recruit with your succession plan in mind. Your succession planning process should start by recruiting great people. During the recruitment process, assess candidates’ background, experience, and career plans to gauge how they could fit into your succession strategy long-term. Lucid Chart(15) says, “You don’t necessarily have to recruit for a specific high-level opening—instead, look for the qualities and experience that would help you recruit employees that can be developed and groomed for future leadership roles.”
Help people let go. One of the biggest challenges with succession planning is the difficulty many departing employees have letting go. Those who have been in a role for a long time may have mixed feelings about vacating it and believe that there are a lot of tasks only they can do. Emotions can run high, clouding judgment, and making it harder for departing employees to focus on coaching their successors and passing on knowledge. Ramsden(16) suggests, “An objective third party can help keep these feelings out of the planning process.”
Think about your own successor. Don’t overlook yourself as you plan. Your own role will need to be filled someday. Half asks, “Which employee could step into your shoes someday? And what can you do, starting now, to help that person prepare for that transition?”
Develop and publicize a fair selection process. Employees sometimes feel that one of their colleagues has just been handed a promotion on a silver platter, without any formal selection process or succession plan. This is especially likely to happen when the role wasn’t advertised. Leyshon suggests that you announce the vacancy internally to give other team members a chance to put their names forward for the role. Or share your process and criteria for choosing successors with everyone, on a need-to-know basis, or only if employees ask. Leyshon says, “There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but it can build trust and boost engagement if as a business you can share the reasons that a successor was chosen.”
Document. Keep a detailed record of your succession planning efforts so you and others in your organization can learn from what you’ve done. The Indeed Editorial Team suggests, “Consider those processes which went smoothly and those which may require improvement.” Identify areas of miscommunication or confusion that your incoming candidates and other employees experienced. Reflect on and record lessons learned for future succession planning.
Change the name. Goldsmith suggests changing the name of the process from succession planning to succession development. He says, “We see many companies put more effort and attention into the planning process than they do into the development process.” Succession planning has lots of to-do’s — forms, charts, meetings, due dates, and checklists. These tools sometimes create a false sense that the planning process is an end in itself rather than a precursor to real development. Goldsmith says, “Plans do not develop anyone—only development experiences develop people.”
Safeguard confidentiality. Succession planning can involve sensitive issues as people leave your organization or leave one position within it for another. Emotions may escalate as a beloved colleague leaves, especially because of illness or other troubling circumstances, or if one person on the team is promoted but not another. You will need to balance transparency with discretion. Leyshon asks, “Does everybody need to know everything about the succession plan, and if so, do they all need to necessarily know at the same time?” Get your leadership team, the individual who is vacating a role, and the successor to agree which types of information can be shared and which should be treated as confidential.
Build interims in your succession plan. Identify employees who could serve as interims should you find yourself with a sudden vacancy in a key position. Jennings(17) suggests that you consider aligned responsibilities and core competencies between the two roles and which positions have similar day-to-day operations and functional areas. Jennings adds, “Remember that these interim employees could ultimately take over the role at some point, so they should be strong contenders.” Be sure, however, that the interim understands from the start that the permanent position is not guaranteed and that you will be filling it according to your succession plan.
Give yourself and your succession planning team some TLC. It can feel daunting to hold the future of your organization and the careers of others in your hands. Allow your succession planning team to talk about their feelings and give them the feedback, support, and encouragement they need. Also be mindful of your own feelings as you work through the succession planning process. It is challenging work and the stakes are high. Seek the help and support you need and cut yourself some slack if the perfect candidates don’t come to mind right away. Succession planning is a tough job, but you can do it. And in the end, doing it well may be one of your most important contributions to your organization and to the people who work there today and long after you are gone.
Why Succession Planning Fails
The right successors will be able to handle their new roles as well as or even better than the people before them. Sometimes, however, that doesn’t happen. Or the right person has been given the role but does not want to stay in it. Or you cannot find the right person for the role and find yourself having to compromise. There are several reasons succession plans fail, but fortunately, there are also steps you can take to failure-guard your plan.
One reason succession plans fail is that managers sometimes oppose it. They may find it challenging and unpleasant to think about letting go of their best performers who will ascend to a new position and leave a hole behind them. As a result, some may dig in their heels, resent succession planning, or otherwise not support it. To prevent this, set an expectation for your managers to develop their teams and hold them accountable for recognizing employees who excel. Create opportunities for them to feel engaged and supported at work so they don’t feel that they are alone in the aftermath of losing a valued team member. Educate your managers on the benefits of succession planning, including how they will have their choice of internal candidates when they have vacancies to fill. Be transparent with them about your goal of keeping talent within the organization and solicit their help. Miles suggests, “Invest in your [management] team, helping them cultivate key management skills, along with the ability to make difficult leadership decisions.”
A lack of time also can tank succession plans. Many leaders are rewarded chiefly based on short-term accomplishments and push long-term succession planning to the side. In too many organizations, Miles says, “The board only discusses CEO succession when a transition is looming.” Start succession planning today, or if not, as soon as possible. Miles adds, “This means checking in with your leaders regularly on their career plans. It might also mean identifying future leaders by seeing their potential.” Incentivize your leaders if you can and sell the urgency for and benefits of succession planning to them so they will be engaged in the task.
Another reason succession plans fail is that they are reactive rather than proactive. Ginac(18) explains, “Many companies develop succession plans to find replacements in case an employee decides to leave. However, the right approach is to always have a pool of candidates/successors available.” A proactive approach enables organizations to make changes according to their own planning while preparing them for abrupt changes outside of their control.
Succession plans fail, too, when they are too narrow. Organizations often focus on planning just for C-suite and other top leaders. Ginac says that most companies develop succession plans for only 25% of their workforce, at most, but that in reality, “it’s more important to build succession plans for every other employee.” Each department works like a well-oiled machine, and missing even one part of it can cause department-wide problems. Ginac says, “Ultimately, every employee is essential to ensure smooth business operations,” and should be considered in your succession planning.
Succession plans also fail when they don’t include prospective successors in the process. Planning for a person to ascend to a new position is not like moving a piece on a chess board. Human beings have their own ideas about their careers. Ginac warns, “The companies that develop succession plans for every employee often overlook whether an employee wants a role or not. Many employees can be qualified for a position, but only some of them would consider it an aspirational role.” Work with your prospective successors by offering them “career pathing,” Ginac says, so you know what they want their future roles to be.
A lack of integration is another reason that succession plans fail. Many organizations treat succession plans as a separate and independent process. Ginac warns, “As a result, even properly developed succession plans can have negative results when the successor doesn’t perform well.” There are two reasons for poor successor performance. First, succession plans are considered an HR function in many organizations when, in fact, it’s more than that. Although HR may finalize a succession plan, the initial development of the successor should be the responsibility of each respective department. Second, succession plans often aren’t tied to the organization’s internal training, development, and coaching programs. Ginac suggests that you integrate your succession plan by including your training and development departments and other relevant entities. Consider every resource available to you that can help successors prepare for and transition into their new roles.
Finally, succession plans fail when organizations lack sufficient in-house talent. In some cases, organizations develop excellent succession plans but don’t have the talent pool needed to enact them. However, you don’t have to settle for less-than-ideal successors or seek external candidates for vacancies because the people who work in your organization right now are not suitable successors. You can create and improve your own talent pool. Talentguard(19) says, “The easiest way to ensure you have the best successors is to develop an organizational talent pool depending on the qualification, skills, and preferences of employees.” Recruit at every level in your organization to create a team of the right mix of employees for today and for the future.
How to Handle Employees Who Didn’t Get the Promotion
Succession plans focus on identifying and preparing successors to take on new roles. That’s how it should be. However, you also must keep in mind that for every succession there is likely to be at least one person who is not happy about being passed over for the promotion. Burry(20) says, “Being passed over for a promotion—particularly when you feel like you deserved it, or if someone you believe is less qualified receives one instead—can be demoralizing and discouraging.”
Typically, little more is said to candidates passed over for the promotion other than some polite form of, “You didn’t get it.” Or worse, candidates are left to figure out on their own that they didn’t get the job when the successor is announced. Employees may become bitter or jaded when they are passed over, especially when they were a final contender for the position and it was a long recruitment process. Some may be tempted to quit. Employers can manage the situation in a much more effective and sensitive way to prevent this from happening. Janove(21) says, “When employees don’t know the facts, they will speculate about what the truth may be. And that speculation is invariably worse than reality.”
Employees who were passed over for a promotion need to know three things: why they were not chosen; that they are still valued; and what they can do to improve their chances for future promotion. Be specific about the qualifications, experience, and certification(s) of the selected candidate when promotions or new hires are announced. Explain how that individual was a better fit for the position. Often, this information helps less-qualified internal applicants understand why the selection decision was made. Have regular performance discussions with the employee and offer appropriate guidance about their strengths and weaknesses. Teach them effective interview strategies if you felt that their interview performance could have been better. Review their personal development plans and suggest training opportunities. Janove says, “Sometimes, it’s helpful to be direct and honest with people you think won’t ever be promoted for that type of position. If you know you’re never going to hire Jane or Jim into that senior management role, talking with them about their interests and other options may ultimately be the kindest thing you can do.”
Often the conversations we don’t want to have are the most important to have. Explaining promotion decisions to disappointed candidates falls into this category. Janove warns, “Beware the avoidance instinct. The sooner you engage the candidates and share reasons for the decision, the better.”
How to Use a 9-Box Matrix for Succession Planning
The 9-box matrix is a popular tool for assessing employees’ performance and potential, team composition, and candidates for training and development. Managers typically use the 9-box matrix in preparation for performance reviews, reorganizing employee responsibilities, and other managerial duties. In addition, the Indeed Editorial Team(22) suggests, “If you’re a manager who takes part in succession planning, the nine-box matrix can be a useful tool to help you assess members of your team for a promotion.”
The 9-box matrix offers several benefits. It is an easy-to-use tool that enables managers to compare team members and assess them by the same yardstick. It can help them monitor changes in team composition over time and give them a holistic approach to reviewing talent. And it can be used by managers across the organization, standardizing their evaluations. Employees who are assessed as having high potential and high performance will be promising candidates for succession. In addition, Profit Co.(23) offers the following guidelines for using the 9-box matrix for succession planning:
Low performers: Do not consider low performers for your succession planning.
Moderate performers: Consider those with high potential for development programs, but not for succession planning at this time. Do not consider those with moderate or low potential for your succession planning.
High performers: Recognize and reward all your high performers. Those with high potential are ideal candidates for succession planning and other advanced development opportunities. Those with moderate potential are good candidates for development but are not ready for succession planning at this time. Do not consider low performers for succession planning.
References
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