Leadership Succession

This volume focuses on the most critical strategic activity in any organization, namely, who gets chosen to sit in the top echelon of the pyramid. Friedman argues that it is the quality of corporate leadership that will determine corporate winners and losers in the global competitive game. The stakes in leadership succession are high. The selection of key figures is the one human resource activity that no one belittles for being of secondary importance. Indeed, leadership succession is so important and central in many executive minds that it crowds out any other work. The succession process is often fraught with political intrigue, it lacks discipline, and excludes meaningful involvement of senior human resource executives. The contributors to this imaginative volume reveal a succession planning process that is frequently sloppy, superficial, and regularly sabotaged by senior management when they give it short shrift in terms of quality time. In addition, senior management often overrides sound decisions when it comes to filling key positions. The result is a lack of integrity throughout the human resource systems that eventually leads to a collapse of belief in the system and its governance. Noel M. Tichy, a leading figure in the studies of human resource management, has said, "Stewart Friedman is to be congratulated for a successful effort in providing a state of the art look at leadership succession. [He] provides us with an empirical database of what is happening in U.S. corporations, helpful prescriptions for future improvement of leadership succession, and a realistic assessment of the human resource executive challenges in this area."

Based on a review of the literature and several in-depth case studies, this book suggests a strategy-as-practice framework for succession and explores leadership logic, trust and followership. This book takes the reader through the key stages and disciplines required for effective top-level succession. Corporations, growing entrepreneurial companies and family owners all must manage strong group dynamics and individual needs in a succession transition. This book includes a wide range of global client cases, including public sector organizations, corporations, entrepreneurial firms and family owners. Based on rigorous research and written in an accessible style with a focus on practical needs, readers will also be able to combine this analysis within disciplines of governance, leadership, strategy and organizational development. This book will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners as well as executives at the top levels of businesses.

Many attempts to establish a succession plan fail. Why? They run up against insurmountable implementation challenges, or weak executive commitment and follow-through. Succession Planning That Works: The Critical Path of Leadership Development is a step-by-step guide to help HR professionals and senior leaders develop a succession plan that delivers a measurable return on investment. Based on in-depth interviews with senior executives from nearly 50 organizations, Succession Planning That Works reveals not only the most important components of effective succession planning, but also the most effective order in which to put them into practice. Packed with real-world examples, Succession Planning That Works shows how real companies have attempted to tackle succession planning issues and examines both their victories and their failures to highlight the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Topics include: - 13 reasons to begin succession planning now - How to calculate the ROI of promoting from within - The Succession Planning Critical Path - the most efficient and effective way to implement a succession plan - How to gain or strengthen executive buy-in for succession planning - How to measure your success Also included are 20 downloadable templates and tools to help make succession planning easier to comprehend and implement....

William Rothwell honored with the ASTD Distinguished Contribution Award in Workplace Learning and Performance. The definitive guide to a timely and timeless topic-- now fully revised and updated. As baby boomers continue to retire en masse from executive suites, managerial offices, and specialized or technical jobs, the question is—who will take their places? This loss of valuable institutional memory has made it apparent that no organization can afford to be without a strong succession program. Now in its fourth edition, Effective Succession Planning provides the tools organizations need to establish, revitalize, or revise their own succession planning and management (SP&M) programs. The book has been fully updated to address challenges brought on by sea changes such as globalization, recession, technology, and the aftereffects of the terror attacks. It features new sections on identifying and assessing competencies and future needs; management vs. technical succession planning; and ethics and conduct; and new chapters on integrating recruitment and retention strategies with succession planning programs. This edition incorporates the results of two extensive new surveys, and includes a Quick Start guide to help begin immediate implementation as well as a CD-ROM packed with assessments, checklists, customizable guides, and other practical tools.

Leaders leave. It’s inevitable. It might even happen today. Are you prepared? Every organization needs a plan for leadership succession, but few leaders know how to start the process. WHO COMES NEXT? solves that problem and easily guides you through the steps of creating a viable succession plan. The book simplifies the process and gives you the tools you need to build and activate your leadership succession. Whether you are part of a small, family business or a Fortune 500 company, you need to start now by answering the question: WHO COMES NEXT? “This book is a comprehensive look at succession planning, but with a refreshing spin that favors the practical over the theoretical. It’s applicable to any industry, and readers will benefit from action items, tools, and resources with every chapter. Succession planning has never been more critical, and this book is a must-read for any professional looking to answer the question, “Who Comes Next?” --Michael Delucchi, President and Chief Elevation Officer, The Elevate Group “Meridith and Mary are my ‘go to’ experts for succession planning, and they’ve created the definitive guide for how to build a strong succession plan. In this book, they break it down, give you a strategy, and deliver everything you need to create leadership depth at every level of your organization.” --Angela Cox Weston, President, Midwest Speakers Bureau “Succession planning goes way beyond the person at the head of the company. Depth on the bench is essential to ensure an organization’s resiliency and contingency planning.” --Eric Holloway, Captain, U.S. Navy (ret)

A comprehensive guide to planning for CEO succession, from the experts at RHR As the demands from stakeholders for consummate leadership and good governance from a company's board of directors, its CEO, and its executive team increase, how the process of CEO succession is carried out has become more critical than ever before. Yet, over the past several years, a growing number of CEOs have failed early in their terms, often with devastating consequences to their companies and stockholders. By far the most common problem is a lack of ownership of the CEO succession process. Inside CEO Succession provides businesses, leaders, and boards with the strategies they need to execute their responsibilities with a heightened level of professionalism and ensure the sustained success of the companies they serve. Written by Dr. Thomas J. Saporito, CEO of RHR International, and Dr. Paul Winum, Senior Partner of RHR International, the lessons of Inside CEO Succession are rooted in RHR's long-standing history of bringing expert knowledge, experience, advice, and counsel to the issues related to CEO succession. The culmination of RHR's 65 years of experience providing expert counsel to the boards of directors of hundreds of companies, it explains how ego, role-relationships, power, and human dynamics associated with relinquishing leadership, preparing successors, and ceding power and authority to other people create undetected problems in the succession process and ultimately cause many CEOs to fail early in their tenures. Distills RHR's 65 years of experience helping businesses deal with CEO succession into one practical resource Presents strategies to enable boards to understand their role in succession planning and how to source leadership that best fits their organization's culture and requirements Brings together business acumen and psychological insight to help readers better prepare for more effective CEO succession To be successful, CEO succession requires a well-defined course of action that ensures that a number of highly capable candidates are ready to assume the chief executive position whether through an unexpected event or a planned transition. Inside CEO Succession is designed to help boards comprehensively manage that process and effectively sustain their company's profitability.

This volume focuses on the most critical strategic activity in any organization, namely, who gets chosen to sit in the top echelon of the pyramid. Friedman argues that it is the quality of corporate leadership that will determine corporate winners and losers in the global competitive game.The stakes in leadership succession are high. The selection of key figures is the one human resource activity that no one belittles for being of secondary importance. Indeed, leadership succession is so important and central in many executive minds that it crowds out any other work. The succession process is often fraught with political intrigue, it lacks discipline, and excludes meaningful involvement of senior human resource executives.The contributors to this imaginative volume reveal a succession planning process that is frequently sloppy, superficial, and regularly sabotaged by senior management when they give it short shrift in terms of quality time. In addition, senior management often overrides sound decisions when it comes to filling key positions. The result is a lack of integrity throughout the human resource systems that eventually leads to a collapse of belief in the system and its governance.Noel M. Tichy, a leading figure in the studies of human resource management, has said, ""Stewart Friedman is to be congratulated for a successful effort in providing a state of the art look at leadership succession. [He] provides us with an empirical database of what is happening in U.S. corporations, helpful prescriptions for future improvement of leadership succession, and a realistic assessment of the human resource executive challenges in this area.

As the 16th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (October 1st, 2002) draws near, China watchers in Washington, Tokyo, Taipei and many other places have their eyes intently fixed on the political scene in Beijing. Most are predicting problems involved in the transition process as well as speculating on the final leadership line-up. Nevertheless, such speculation is intellectually rather futile. To avoid being too speculative, the contributors to this book have focused instead on two key aspects of China's leadership transition: first, changes in the politics of leadership transition, and second, real and potential problems and challenges that China's younger, fourth generation leaders have to grapple when they take over.