Succession Planning
"The succession planning process is broken. Many companies' succession pipelines are bone dry. Thanks to poor succession planning, two of every five CEOs fail in their first 18 months....How do you find leaders who'll serve your company long and well? Develop a deep pool of internal candidates - and keep it well stocked through a solid development program."
- Ram Charan, leading business strategy consultant & writer
WJM Associates, the foremost experts in executive assessment and development, offers an effective and pragmatic Succession Planning methodology for identifying future leaders and providing them with meaningful and measurable development. Our objective is to help you build and retain an organization of successful individuals.
Overview
WJM has established a practical and flexible Succession Planning process that identifies executives who have high potential and meet your organization's standards for results and adherence to corporate values, character and competences. This as an integral part of the company's strategic planning process by identifying or validating the company's perceptions and beliefs about the strengths and advancement potential of the company's talent bench.
WJM's Succession Planning Process includes the following steps:
1) Pre-Assessment Consultation
The WJM Consultant conducts in-depth interviews with the relevant executives and Human Resources to identify succession planning objectives and the basic competencies required to support the organizational strategy, as well as specific technical competencies required for any specific roles in question. Ground rules for the Assessment process and key success factors are also explored.
WJM will make recommendations regarding communications to and expectations of participating executives and guidelines regarding confidentiality.
2) Face-to-Face Interview
The WJM Consultant interviews each Assessment participant for approximately two hours. The framework of the interview will be informed by the Pre-Assessment Consultation and will focus on:
- Fit within the company's culture
- Management style
- Leadership ability
- Interpersonal effectiveness
- Technical competencies specific to role
3) Diagnostic Assessments
The WJM Consultant will distribute, score and interpret two personality and leadership styles instruments that will assess the candidate's abilities to successfully perform within the company in the specified role. The Consultant will advise the Company regarding which instrument best suits the organization and the specific succession planning objectives. The instruments utilized may be one developed in-house by the company or chosen from the following list of tools frequently employed by WJM:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)
16PF® Fifth Edition
Hogan Assessment Systems
Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)™
Perth Outcome Assessments™
4) 360º Interviews
A list of 360º "raters" is identified by the Company, which includes 1 or 2 superiors, 2 or 3 peers and 2 or 3 reports for each of the executives being assessed. Each 360º rater is interviewed and asked about how they experience the participant's behavior related to the Company's defined leadership competencies. Alternatively, an online 360º Assessment process can be employed. A short (15 question) online survey is custom designed to reflect the identified leadership competencies and measure the key factors for high potential employees. This electronic survey is distributed to each participant's co-workers. The online 360º tool provides detailed results including:
- Survey scores by executive (viewed by question or factor)
- Ranking of leaders by scores
- Comments
- Scatter plots for individual leaders
- Relationship demographic scores (managers, peers, subordinates)
As part of a continued succession and development program for the participants, progress can be tracked with follow-up online surveys quarterly or semi-annually.
5) Leadership Proficiency Evaluation™
The Leadership Proficiency Evaluation™ (LPE™) provides a summary of the information gathered from the face-to-face interview, diagnostic assessments and 360º interviews. The intent of the written report is to offer a clear and concise evaluation based on the interviews and tests in which the individual has participated. Included in the LPE is a brief overview of the executive's personality style, personal strengths and developmental issues, including a comparison of these key factors with the organization's identified leadership competencies.
6) Participant Feedback
Feedback of the Assessment results is delivered to each of the participants by the WJM Consultant. The Consultant presents the Assessment results in a clear and constructive manner with the individual's development as the primary concern.
7) Consultation and Presentation to Senior Leaders and/or HR
WJM generates and presents desired data on participants and organizational themes to the organization's leadership, HR and/or Board of Directors. We make recommendations on developmental options, leadership actions and organizational effectiveness.
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