Q004
How do you know
when a plan needs updated?
our take .
Governance-wise, you should be reviewing your succession plan at least annually. It’s a useless document if things in the business have materially changed since the last time you looked at it.
The most obvious cases for updating or changing the plan involve the successor him or herself – when your chosen candidate should be “un-chosen.” Psychologically, it seems like a lot of drama (from Queen Elizabeth I to Logan Roy to modern execs) stems from pre-selecting someone who may not "live up to the task" in the intervening time. But the selection doesn't have to be carved in stone: If your chosen successor has left the business, you need a new plan. If he or she has shown that they won’t be ready to step up or aren’t interested in running the business, you need a new plan. If your successor has shown that their values aren’t aligned with the organization (this could be anything from misaligned priorities to outright fraud), you need a new plan.
As a brief aside, your patience for a candidate is dependent on your timeline. We are all fallible, and no one’s performance will be perfect over a long enough period, especially when it comes to consequential and subjective judgment. But, without introducing significant risk to the business, you can only tolerate as many stumbles as you have time and capacity to oversee and counsel. In C-suite positions, that is not always an option. Ultimately, you will do best by ongoingly evaluating judgment and temperament, and investing in candidates – with time, feedback, and responsibility – as long as they are in the running, and you still have time.
But a fully fledged plan isn’t just the name in the envelope. So your succession plan also needs to be updated when other factors change. You may need to update the timeline, especially if something changes health-wise for existing leadership. You may need to update your knowledge documentation as the business continues to change and grow. You may need to update the characteristics and qualifications you’re looking for in a successor as business goals and markets shift.
The bottom line is that if you’re not updating your succession plan on a regular basis – and particularly when something changes – the misalignment between the plan on paper and the current realities creates confusion, slows decision-making, and builds anxiety throughout the company. Whenever something material in the business or your plans changes, you need to look at your succession plan to make sure it’s ready no matter what’s coming down the pipeline. Review regularly, communicate accordingly, and stay flexible.
on paper.
character to consider: Logan Roy
Loyalty tests & long-term strategy
We couldn’t get out of a succession planning discussion without bringing up, well Succession. If there’s one character who updates his succession plan a bit too often, it’s Logan Roy. He uses succession as a loyalty test, setting up high-stakes (and frequently humiliating) challenges for his potential successors, family or otherwise. The repeated tests, and the paranoia they stoke, spur the patriarch to continue along with his revolving doors of successors and heirs. With so many names in so many envelopes, it’s clear that he’s angling to reinforce his belief that no one is truly ready to take his place.
Trust erosions & dangled promises
Logan frequently teases his children – Kendall, Shiv, and Roman – with the prospect of becoming his successor, only to change his mind as a means of manipulating them into compliance. Each child gets their moment as "the chosen one," but Logan ultimately undermines them, pivoting to another heir inside or outside the company or the family, ensuring no one consolidates enough power to challenge him. In reversing his support or making vague statements about the future, he keeps heads on swivels, leaving everyone in a state of uncertainty and, increasingly, in distrust of his intentions and each other.
Houses of cards & vacuums of power
While the back and forth and back again on whose name is the one present as manipulation, power, and control, it’s also a delaying tactic – a way to not have to have a name, really, because it can change at any time. It means that Logan doesn’t have to confront the many and myriad ways in which his personal identity is only that of leader of Waystar Royco or deal with the fallout of suggesting that there might be a real and settled next in line. The back and forth and back again also means that the leadership void lurking behind the scenes is ready to pounce should the unthinkable happen, as of course it does.
Works consulted:
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