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By Dr. Scott.

This week, we continue our discussions relating to succession planning recommended best practices.  In previous weeks, we examined identifying Leadership Potential, Implementing the Succession Plan, and Monitoring Succession Plan Implementation.  However, even with a succession plan in place, implemented, and underway, many organizations will encounter scenarios that exceed even their best laid plans.  This is where emergency succession planning comes into play.

Emergency succession planning, as a subset of succession planning, typically involves a written plan that identifies individuals that will assume leadership roles either on an interim basis for unexpected absences of key leaders or more permanently if the leadership vacancy is sudden, unexpected, and long term.  In this week’s piece, then, we look at some best practices for emergency succession planning including planning for the short term, planning for the long term, and planning for the middle.

Short Term Planning

Since emergency is part of the name, it is hard to think about best case scenarios, but if one exists it would be planning for interim or short-term vacancies in critical roles.  Most organizations with relatively strong cultures can navigate unexpected, but short absences in most positions.  Even if the CEO gets sick or injured, or needs to take some time off to deal with other personal issues, most companies can quickly delegate responsibilities to the next level of management without too much disruption or drop in productivity.  Some projects may stall or be delayed, but operations in general can be sustained.  According to authors of Don’t Wait to Prepare for an Emergency Succession, emphasized that some companies can even rely on Board Members to step in and assume the role of CEO and be “willing to serve in a crisis” even if they were reluctant to do so previously.

Organizations, though, should move beyond this ad hoc strategy and plan for absences in more than just the CEO role.  To prepare team members to assume temporary roles across the organizational leadership spectrum, organizations need to first establish clear policies and procedures for initiating and then implementing temporary succession protocols.  These policies and procedures should include essential information relevant to the role and expectations.  Another important addition to these emergency succession plan policies should be time frames and other triggers for determining the appropriateness of interim arrangements and when to seek more long-term solutions.  Other short term emergency planning best practices include developing pathways for knowledge transfer, communicating the plan to relevant stakeholders, regular review and evaluation of the plan, and ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of plan implementation.

Long Term Planning

In a more perfect world, short term vacancies and interim leaders would always return to their original roles and the organizational chart and behaviors would re-set.  However, as the authors of Sudden Departures: Succession Preparedness emphasized, emergency planning involves “planning for every eventuality” while stressing the need for developing “contingency scenarios” to mitigate the impact of sudden and otherwise unexpected departures in key roles. 

Long-term emergency succession planning then, requires that organizations must first develop plans for multiple scenarios across the organizational chart.  Second, companies must also plan for when short-term solutions become long-term problems.  As we emphasized in Implementing the Succession Plan, one best practice is to “build for depth” and cross-train multiple successors to ensure smoother transitions across multiple roles. Preparing multiple candidates for different potential roles broadens the successor pool and helps organizations prepare for multiple contingencies.

Another best practice is to prepare protocols for assessing external candidates, especially in key roles like the CEO or CFO.  By having policies and procedures in place that define ideal candidate profiles and other protocols for hiring new individuals to fill key roles, businesses can quickly implement the hiring process and progress more effectively to identifying top candidates and bringing them on board.

Planning for the Middle

When most people think about emergency succession planning, they often—and somewhat rightly so—immediately think about those high-level, executive roles like the CEO or EVPs.  These are, of course, key roles that need to be quickly filled during periods of unexpected vacancies.  However, what happens when a, let’s say, middle management leader assumes an interim leadership role higher up the organizational chart?  Will that individual be expected to assume both the new and their original duties or will there be further delegation down the management funnel?  Whose roles will be impacted and to what extent?

Much of this should be pre-determined in the emergency succession plan policies and procedures that we have recommended throughout this piece as a foundational best practice for navigating unexpected vacancies.  However, it is important to add that the most effective planning and protocols will address the impact that emergency succession moves will have on the organization as a whole.   The authors of Don’t Wait to Prepare for an Emergency Succession recommend that leaders “consider the domino effect” that emergency succession implementation entails.  Businesses should therefore establish support systems for emergency successors and define roles and expectations for not only the higher-level successor, but also the individuals impacted farther down the chain of command.

Final Thoughts

In this blog, we examined some emergency succession planning and implementation best practices.  Emergency succession planning is an important subset of succession planning that, while similar in many ways, does require additional planning and administration.  Through a well-structured emergency succession plan, organizations can mitigate disruptions caused by unforeseen absences or departures.  We examined short term and long-term planning efforts and also highlighted the importance of considering the “domino effect” that emergency succession plan implementation has on organizational behavior and operations.  By planning for unexpected vacancies in key roles, organizations can more effectively address succession needs in both the short and long terms.

Thank you for reading the Madison School of Professional Development Wednesday Leadership Blog where we highlight leadership best practices each week.  Check out more from this blog and other blogs hosted by MEG here.

If you have a topic that you would like to see me pontificate on, drop me an email at info@meg-spd.com.

Dr. Scott Eidson is the Executive Vice President of the Madison School of Professional Development and holds doctoral degrees in both history and business.  When not thinking about leadership, he’s usually thinking about surfing or old Volkswagens.