Searching for your successor beyond trial-and-error

Periscope

If you are the executive leader of Supply Chain Management at your facility you hopefully should recognize the steps or sequenced activities that you need to know, understand and deploy effectively, if you are to increase your chances of finding your optimal successor.

As a reminder, those steps are:

1. Develop your personal Strategic Plan and timeline. This will help you determine how long you hope or plan to remain employed, and at your current employer.
2. Prepare a Strategic Plan for Supply Chain Management enterprise-wide. This will define where the supply chain is now and where it should go. Then you can determine what must be done and when, which will help identify what leadership resources are needed and the subsequent skill sets, knowledge and experience the leadership team and the successor will need.
3. Confer with your boss and the senior executives — if you don’t report to the CEO directly. Make sure they understand and buy into the Supply Chain Strategic Plan.
4. Prepare the general and specific timeline and the sequence of activities and events that will lead to the execution of the Plan.
5. Develop a budget for the Plan and for the search for the successor.
6. Make sure policies and procedures are correct and current. If they are not, fix them. The successor will need this tool as a reference source and a guide when they take the helm.
7. Produce a Talent Profile for the leaders and successor that coincides and synchronizes with the Strategic Plan. How will you recognize and confirm those candidates that best match the Talent Profile? Stay tuned.
8. Identify talent sources. These include schools with soon-to-be graduates, professional societies, other “second lieutenants” in your local marketplace, regional and national markets, the military, etc.
9. Decide on a search firm or in-house effort. In-house may be a mistake. Does your internal HR team (and you) have the time to devote to a thorough but quick-as-possible search? Do you know or have connections with the external sources of talent? Realistically, not likely.
10. Get started when the time arrives that you defined in the Strategic Plan. Get the job done/hire the successor (or promote from within), mentor as needed, turn over the keys, and wish him or her all the best.

Igniting the talent profile

You might be familiar with the phrase, “you’ll know a leader when you see one.” Really? How?

Well, after you have completed steps 1-7 above, you will have a pretty good idea of the talent needed or preferred for the successor and the other leaders.

Then you begin the detective work of learning all you can about your internal prospects, as well as some selected external prospects. That means getting to know your current leader’s team members.

Observe their interactions with their subordinates, peers, customers and superiors. Are they good listeners? How do they handle problems (process and people)? Do they see the big picture and will they get and support the Strategic Plan? How well do they write (a report) and speak to a group? Are they good thinkers that can cease deliberation, make a decision and execute it? Are they organized and good at following up?

Can and do they plan and follow it? Are they logical, analytical, fair, know when and how to have fun at work? Mature thinkers? And, maybe most importantly, do they “command respect” without demanding it, by their demeanor, their actions, their knowledge, their respect for others, their reliability and integrity? 

But wait… before you get enamored with a candidate that seems to have it all or can quickly learn the ropes and settle in as the successor, have you considered others in your own organization? What about those that have learned some-to-many principles of supply chain management and operations management in their current positions? Think about Food Service, Pharmacy, Engineering, even the “Lean Team.” What if someone in Administration might be interested and able to take charge of an operation that represents around 50 percent of the operating budget? Have they developed strong relationships with the managers and staff that will rely on them and vice versa?

Next, look at what is out in the market. A search firm can help you see what skills, knowledge, experience candidates have and their current and expected compensation. How does that compare with your requirements and the ability to execute the Strategic Plan? What about your own and the internal potential candidates’ qualifications? Or what your employer likely is willing to pay?

If there is someone with many of the needed characteristics, but you are just not convinced, you can have candidates take aptitude and skill tests that can be administered and scored by HR or a third-party firm. Such tests also can identify the accuracy and reliability of your observations about their personal characteristics. Is he or she an introvert or extrovert? Thinker or doer? Decision- and action-oriented?

There is a lot to think about and do when advancing succession planning — from creating a plan to making the offer. Make sure to take the time to think it through, confer with those who have done more of this than you and even someone who has a different perspective than you do (internal source or external search firm). If you do most of the above, you stand a pretty good chance of making the right selection. Just remember: If the successor is not successful, it’s not your fault. He or she still must do the job and do it right.