×
Menu
Search

A Guide to Succession Planning

Home
/
Blog
/
Business Continuation
/
A Guide to Succession Planning

A Guide to Succession Planning

Succession planning makes it possible to prepare your company for the future. Through this process, you can decide who will take on a key employee’s position should they one day leave. Succession planning allows your company to continue making progress even during transformative changes that are involved in managing a business. Your strategy serves as a foundation to retain your strongest employees, who also are usually the ones who want to know where their careers will lead them. 

Prosper Financial provides the tools you need to build a succession plan and keep it updated according to your company’s ongoing needs. Here’s a general guide for getting started. For advice regarding your succession plan, call us to schedule a consultation with our representative. 

Understand Who You Are As a Company

Business leaders should know that there isn’t a single method of succession planning that works for everyone. To make the most of the benefits, your business’s management should identify who you are as a company in order to adequately plan for the years to come. For example, maybe your company wants to continue its legacy of consistency and dependability, while another business prioritizes innovation and the cutting edge. Neither is right nor wrong: all it means is that different companies need different kinds of leadership. By knowing “who” you are as a company, you can find suitable candidates for its future leaders. 

Consider Your Whole Organization

Next, examine your workforce to determine positions and employees who are critical to your operations. Consider the entire organization, not just upper management, since some key employees are those who work in support roles. While it’s understandable that business leaders may focus on their C-suite, don’t overlook the talent lying elsewhere in your workforce. Considering all positions and employees allows you to devise a succession plan that can make success possible. 

Build Your Succession Planning Strategy

There are several ways to approach succession planning. The ideal plan is the one that upholds your organization’s best interests. To decide what will work for your company, think about the following questions: 

  • Do you want your succession plan to include all positions and employees within your workforce? Or, would a succession plan that is focused on management and leadership be more suitable? 
  • Will you incorporate grooming successors into performance reviews for your managers? 
  • Do you need to address vulnerabilities within your company, such as a specific department having many employees who plan to retire? 
  • What is your primary goal? What does the desired outcome look like? 

Identify Potential Successors

After you’ve determined what roles are critical to your operations, identify a few employees who are suited for potentially taking over that role one day. Remember that there are numerous qualities that make up a powerful leader, not just extroversion: emotional intelligence, problem-solving and other attributes are worth considering. You’ll then need to have a serious conversation with the individuals of interest to determine their own career goals and where they see themselves in the future. 

Talk to Our Succession Planning Advisors for Guidance

Protecting your company’s future is possible once you develop a solid understanding of the vision you wish to achieve. Contact Prosper Financial to discuss your goals with a succession planning advisor. 

Share this post

facebooktwitter

Contact
Our Team

We are glad to help you. Please
contact us to schedule a meeting

Categories

Archives

Succession planning makes it possible to prepare your company for the future. Through this process, you can decide who will…

Succession planning makes it possible to prepare your company for the future. Through this process, you can decide who will…

×