As published in the Winnipeg Sun. As the year 2009 begins its long journey, take time to look around your organization. Ask yourself, how many people in your workplace are eligible to retire? Where are these individuals placed within your organization? If you are in a small entrepreneurial firm, what does your owner intend to do in the next few years? Does their potential departure present any opportunities for you? If so, how do you get noticed as a candidate? Finally, what is the process for replacing these long term employees in your organization?

Developing a plan to replace senior executives is typically referred to as succession planning. It is a process whereby organizational leaders prepare potentially suitable employees through mentoring, job rotation, coaching and/or advanced training. The overall goal of succession planning is to ensure the organization doesn’t face a leadership vacuum in senior positions if someone departs unexpectedly.

Hopefully organizations don’t wait until someone suddenly dies or retires because of illness to start this planning process. From a career perspective, it is important that you ask around and determine what planning processes are in place, what you have to do to be perceived as a potential candidate and how you can get involved.

Keep in mind that succession plans are long term plans of anywhere from five to fifteen years. In other words, you need to be placed somewhere on the succession list as early as you can in your career. Don’t wait...in fact, if you are interested in career progression, you should be planning well ahead of any potential need by the company.

First of all, evaluate the positions you are interested in and determine what experiential career path will take you there. Identify the skills that need to be developed and how this can be accomplished. Is there a combination of on-the-job skill development combined with external courses? Create a career development plan for yourself. Engage in ongoing training that will benefit the organization as well as yourself. In most cases, you’ll be pleased to know that your organization will typically pay for this training.

Be certain to relay your career desires and professional interests in upcoming performance reviews and ask for support from your manager. If opportunities arise to participate in organizational or project reviews where you can not only gain skills but be involved in making improvements to systems, then take them. After all, you need to become a “known entity” within the organization as well as being viewed as a potential leader.

At the same time, continue to ask for and take on additional leadership responsibilities so that you are broadening your skillset. Leaders at the senior level are generalists not specialists. Therefore you need to develop more skills at the strategic level. In particular, focus on developing your financial management and strategic planning strengths.

Where possible, become part of your industry and/or professional organization. Take on leadership roles in these organizations as they will not only develop your skillsets but will create a strong network of relationships that can help your career overall. Your career motto should be, “every day, in every way, prepare for opportunities”.

If done well, an organizational succession planning process will include an effective employee development program as well as an effective recruitment and selection process. In some cases, this means the organization will request the involvement of an external executive search consultant who will lead the project. There are a number of reasons why this might occur. First, the incumbent managers may feel they need external expertise in selecting the new senior leader as they haven’t been engaged in interviewing and candidate selection for some time. If there is a board of directors, they may feel that independent objective judgment is required, especially if there is an internal candidate involved. Lastly, it is well known that executive search professionals are well connected in their communities and can present a number of candidates for consideration.

However, in some circumstances, internal candidates become personally offended when a company elects to conduct an external search process. On the other hand, keep in mind that internal candidates literally have the “inside track” because of their knowledge of the company. Furthermore, knowing that an internal candidate was successful in the selection process against significant competition helps not only bolster their own self esteem and self confidence but also increases their credibility within the organization and beyond.

Despite the fact that an internal candidate may have a significant advantage, individuals must still prepare as well as any other candidate. This means preparing a good resume that outlines the skills which are being brought to the job. It means reviewing accomplishments and selecting those that demonstrate readiness to take on additional leadership responsibilities. In addition, it is important that internal candidates prepare for the interview. Since more than likely the internal candidate has not been involved in an interview process for some time, it is important to prepare extra well. Be sure to practice responding to behavioral descriptive interviewing questions. As well, understand the executive search process. It takes time and is completed very carefully. For instance, at a senior level, the interviews typically include a telephone interview, a face to face interview and one or more team interviews by the owners or senior managers. Candidates are also required to complete one or more assessment tools which enable an evaluation of the candidate’s ability to lead on several fronts.

The purpose of succession planning is to ensure the continuity of highly qualified staff in key roles while at the same time acting as a motivational tool for aspiring employees. Yet no matter whether your organization has a plan in place or not, never take anything related to your career for granted....adopt the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared!”