Welcome back to the third post in our series on preparing your successor! As we’ve seen, preparing your successor is critical for helping to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Our previous posts focused on highlighting your successor’s gifts and sharing knowledge. In this post, we are going to look at two tips for preparing people at your company for the succession.
4. Announce your successor to key stakeholders for the company.
Key stakeholders for the company could include major clients, vendors, or investors. By announcing your successor to stakeholders, you show your vote of confidence for your successor. Being familiar with company stakeholders will also help your successor understand expectations for the company’s performance.
- Aim to announce your successor 6 to 12 months in advance of the official transition. This will allow time to work through any reservations the stakeholders may have about the change.
- Only announce your successor to stakeholders once the successor has proven that they are highly committed and competent to assume the leadership position.
- If a stakeholder doesn’t know the successor, introduce them and create easy ways for them to connect. For example, while you are introducing them, highlight any common ground the stakeholder and successor have with each other.
5. Prepare the people in the company to support your successor.
To lead well, your successor needs people around them who can encourage their strengths and cover for their weaknesses. First, think about where your successor could use some extra support. For example, someone who is innovative but not detail-oriented will need a team who can welcome their ideas but also compensate for their lack of attention to detail. Then, think about how you can help prepare your leadership team to understand and collaborate with your successor’s leadership style. For example, you might have a training session explaining how your successor’s leadership style will benefit the company and how the leadership team can best collaborate with your successor.
To wrap up, here’s a quick summary of the tips we covered in our series:
- Apply your successor’s unique strengths and leadership style.
- Mentor your successor.
- Foster transparency and honest communication with your successor.
- Announce your successor to key stakeholders for the company.
- Prepare the people in your company to support your successor.
Whichever of these steps you choose to implement, remember that by preparing your successor now, you are setting them up for successful leadership in the future.
Chew On This:
What is one way that you can prepare your team to support your successor in the coming month?
