Begin with an emergency succession plan [includes downloadable planning template]
Download an emergency succession planning template here.
What is an emergency succession plan?
An emergency succession plan outlines the plan that both senior staff and members of the board will follow to reallocate and carry out executive leadership responsibilities in the event that the executive leader makes an unplanned departure for any reason. This includes considerations such as communications and compensation.
Organizations can use the components of the plan that identify an interim leader, the reallocation of responsibilities, and board responsibilities to support the interim leader in instances of temporary leave such as parental leave or sabbatical.
Why begin with an emergency succession plan?
Input/Impact: An emergency succession plan is the lowest-hanging fruit in the realm of leadership sustainability and succession planning. It does not take a long time to complete an emergency plan and it is an immediate way for everyone to sigh a breath of relief that you have thought this through.
Introducing the Larger Conversation: Emergency succession planning is a straightforward way to introduce the larger need for comprehensive leadership sustainability and succession planning. Talking about the sustainability of an executive leader’s role, the strength of the internal leadership pipeline, and establishing transition plans in both emergency and planned scenarios can be highly sensitive. Emergency succession planning provides a vehicle for introducing and normalizing these conversations that might otherwise be avoided.
What if my board thinks that I am leaving my job—or getting ready to leave—because I bring this up? Will it make them more likely to plan on replacing me?
Before beginning this conversation with your board, it is important to first get clear with yourself about the range of years you see remaining in your tenure. Taking this step first will allow you to clearly articulate your wishes to your board. In the absence of that clarity, they can only make assumptions about your wishes for remaining at the organization or transitioning out.
Explain to your board that emergency succession planning is a fundamental organizational health practice. An organization without one is putting itself in a precarious and unsustainable position. When you broach this with your board, address their potential concerns—are you leaving? will this make other people think you are leaving?—proactively.
A third-party facilitator can bear the responsibility of addressing and mitigating concerns from the board that sustainability and succession planning is anything other than an organizational health initiative.
Do we need to hire a third party to facilitate this process?
If your organization can afford to spend $0 on having a third party facilitate your planning, it is possible to do so. There are significant benefits, however, to hiring a third party to facilitate your planning. We have never seen a succession and sustainability plan completed without outside support that was comprehensive—in 100% of planning processes, we have seen significant opportunities to improve upon and deepen what the organization started on its own.
Among other things, a third party can support you and your board in skillfully considering potentially uncomfortable questions; can offer a lens of comparison with peer organizations, other industries, and best practices; and can act as an advocate for sustainability practices that might otherwise go dismissed. Simply put, a third party will identify blind spots and support you in being a little bolder in your vision for leadership at your organization.