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Is Your Bench Strong Enough to Win?

We have previously presented information regarding succession planning to protect the interests of an attorney’s clients. The article below, written by former Disciplinary Board Chair, Douglas W. Leonard, provides another perspective of succession planning.

The strategic importance of succession is indisputable, and the basic elements of effective succession planning have long been understood. So why do many plan poorly for succession?

Why indeed!

Your company’s leadership ‘bench’ is developed by, among other things, savvy succession planning; and, essentially, succession planning is smart business planning.

In its least common denominator, the crucial question is: does your organization proactively manage the leadership pipeline or does it leave succession to good fortune or chance?

Succession is about the former of those questions. Proactively developing people, rather than merely naming someone as a replacement. Succession planning is about making sure your organization - regardless of type or structure - will continue to thrive, grow, and move forward.

I’ve had a front-row seat to succession planning in many organizations. I have worked as a corporate consultant and executive coach for 25 years and witnessed all manner of approaches. Before my consulting career began, I experienced succession first hand in organizations in which I was employed.

Leaders, at some point in their development, hit a transition point. That is where they move from a lower-level role to a role that is critical to succession.

Various studies of large consultancies show that from that transition point, roughly:

• 10-20% Succeed
• 30-40% Perform mediocrely
• 40-60% Fail

That is too little success, too much failure, and too much mediocrity.

If you provide little to no development to your organization, you can just imagine what the statistics look like for your key emerging leaders. You are effectively rolling the dice at the craps table of business.

One of the most famous, distinguished, and sought after executive coaches to CEOs, Marshall Goldsmith, likes to say (and wrote a book with this title) “What got you here, won’t get you there.” That title captures the fundamental truth that the skillset you developed to succeed in your current position is not the same one that will help you excel in the next role at the next level.

To me, that book title means there is no effective succession without rigorous personal development. The next person up should not be left to chance or random acts of leadership development. When an organization engages me to coach emerging leaders, identified as having what it takes for senior leadership positions to the C-Suite or CEO role, I take the advice of Mr. Goldsmith and remind my coachee that out of necessity they need to reinvent themselves to succeed in the new position.
 
On the two ends of the succession spectrum, albeit very different types of entities – is one of my clients - a Fortune 50 company with over 85,000 employees. They are extraordinarily dedicated to succession planning and growing future-fit leaders. There are numerous paths for personal development and each person has a customized personal development plan that is executed against rigorously and modified regularly. They concern themselves well beyond making sure future leaders are capable and a good fit for the role, but with how well the leader learns to disrupt themselves and is agile and nimble to lead in the future state, not merely the current state.

In the Disciplinary Board, for which I once served as Chair and “succeeded,” the Chair before me, just as a new Chair “succeeded” me, there is a relatively rigid seniority system. That is not unique; boards throughout the entire court system and every county bar association that you are familiar with will recognize that process. That is the opposite end of the succession spectrum from the example above. That system presumes that the next most senior person is the best suited to lead.

These organizations also do not generally provide any growth and development initiatives to the people who are taking the reins of the organization. There is some hopefulness that the person has grasped the lifeblood of the organization through their seniority, and that experience will enable them to be an effective leader. Maybe. Maybe not. Not unsurprisingly, the leadership of those groups is uneven and varied as the person in the role.

In addition to development of people, there is process. A good process cannot overcome poorly developed leaders, yet process is a contributing factor.

To increase the chances of finding a leader who will serve long and well, companies must do three fundamental things. Of the three, two are internally driven and the third is an internal/external hybrid.

• You should have available a deep pool of internal candidates kept well-stocked by a leadership development process that reaches from the bottom to the top of the organization and identifies high potential candidates from diverse backgrounds.
• You should have available a deep pool of internal candidates kept well-stocked by a leadership development process that reaches from the bottom to the top of the organization and identifies high potential candidates from diverse backgrounds.
• Senior leadership, boards of directors, or other high-level leadership groups should create, then continually update and refine their succession plan and have in place a thoughtful process for making decisions about candidates. To me, this is about fitness, not fit. I’m not looking for leaders who fit the existing paradigm but who continuously learn, unlearn, relearn, and are unrelentingly curious. They see leadership as something that is not mastered, but requires a continuous effort to improve. I look for “learn-it-alls” not know-it-alls.
• Finally, if any outside candidates are to be considered, senior leadership should be exacting and informed drivers of the executive search process, leading the recruiters they hire to fill the position rather than being led by the recruiters they’ve hired.

If you have made it this far in the article and you don’t fully understand how (and why) your organization develops and selects leaders as they do – you are now fully aware that you have no true succession plan or system.

That is a scary place for your business to be unless you are a very lucky at rolling the dice.
 

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Can Wellness Be a Small Firm Priority?

Brian Cuban, author of The Addicted Lawyer, writes of an encounter with a longtime friend who is a partner in a medium-sized firm. While discussing Cuban’s work with addiction, his friend confessed that issues of wellness are not a priority in firms like his. While lawyers in large firms frequently have access to employer assistance programs and high-quality health insurance, those assets may not be available to lawyers in smaller firms. It is not unusual for lawyers in small firms to have low quality health insurance that provides little or no coverage for mental health or substance abuse issues, and to be under pressure to produce work whenever needed and wherever they are. Advances in technology mean lawyers are no longer limited to the resources available in an office, but may be expected to work even when away from the office, on personal time, and at any time of the day. Cuban quotes his friend’s comment:

The expectation is that you’re always available. If you’re on vacation, great — but that just means that they expect you to get the document out before your wife and kids get up for breakfast. And if you’re not willing to be always accessible, you’ll lose the client to another lawyer who will. We’re all in a race to the bottom to ruin our lives.
 
Cuban comments that while advocates for wellness and work-life balance are making progress in persuading many of the big law firms to alter the culture of the practice of law, the path may be steeper for reaching out to medium- and small-sized firms.