Creating a Breeding Ground for Successors 1/28/2006 2:45:48 AM
You've invested years in your industry and many long hours developing your executive career and supporting team. How do you generate an environment that fosters a breeding ground for quality successors? The process begins with you and extends to your corporate culture and the atmosphere you create for your team. You've invested years in your industry and many long hours developing your executive career and supporting team. How do you generate an environment that fosters a breeding ground for quality successors? The process begins with you and extends to your corporate culture and the atmosphere you create for your team.
Lead by Example
To help your team succeed, you need to implement an effective corporate culture. This goes beyond fostering a "team oriented" environment and extends into all aspects of your business. Demonstrate the attitudes you want to see in your managers. Company culture does not work if the top executives say they want the company to operate one way while acting another. Be willing to "work the trenches." One key way to grow quality successors is by leading through example. Demonstrate the kind of work you want to see in your team by doing it yourself. The days of the executive locked away in the top floor office are gone.
Provide the Tools
Keep up on current business trends and be willing to adapt to change. As processes and technologies evolve, so too should your business. Offer opportunities for your employees to learn and shine. Personal growth cultivates company growth. This also creates an atmosphere of anticipating and working through change, which is a benefit to any company. In today's business world, nothing is stagnant. Executive coaching options abound, from individual coaching to team building workshops. Research the best tools for your team, and then make them available. The best executive coach in the world won't do you any good if you don't make the first contact.
Let Your Team Know When They've Done it Right
If an employee or group accomplishes a difficult task or puts in the extra effort on a project, reward them with public recognition. Not only does this help boost morale, but it also lets your employees know what they are doing correctly, which will lead to repeat performances. It is all too easy to let someone know when he or she does not live up to expectations, but if your goal is to develop a successor or group of successors, informing others of the desired traits is also highly useful.
Value Your Team
When you give credit where it is due, you show your team that their work is valued. If employees do not feel valued in the workplace, they will likely seek elsewhere. Today's manager does not believe in staying with the same company for years. The length of time someone stays with a company is often measured in a few short years. This not encouraging to those who are developing today's talent into tomorrow's successors.
One way for your management team to feel valued is through opportunities to make a difference. For the executive seeking a successor, this provides an excellent method of observing talent and screening out those individuals who show the most promise and dedication. It's a winning situation for all involved, even when projects fall flat. Your future leaders will learn from mistakes and apply that information when the opportunity comes around again.
These situations also provide you with prime breeding ground for developing successors by growing your talent through the difficulties of business, which leads to the final point.
Grow Your Talent
You've likely heard a lot about attracting and maintaining talent, and certainly employing the help of executive recruiters is useful. However, one of the best ways to create a winning team is to develop it. Attracting and maintaining talent goes beyond an alluring salary. Today's workforce, including managers and executives, are looking for value that cannot be measured in dollars. This means allowing people to use and develop their talents. Winning companies know how to identify their managers' strongest characteristics and develop them into top executives based on those strengths. Companies that struggle tend to spend a lot of energy attracting new talent but falling short of allowing that talent the room to grow.
As with any plan worth undertaking, developing quality talent takes work and effort. However, when you consider how long it took you to get to the point of needing a successor, the effort becomes clear. The reward of growing a pool of successors is well worth it and goes beyond your legacy. Your team, company, and stakeholders will thank you for it as well.
