Competency & Talent Management A strong succession planning program is one that identifies and fosters the next generation of leaders through mentoring, training and stretch assignments, so they are ready to take the helm when the time comes. Research supports sound succession planning. A study some years ago from consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton concluded that "over their entire tenures, CEOs appointed from the inside tend to outperform outsiders" when it comes to returns to shareholders. Yet many organizations struggle to take their succession planning programs beyond a static list of names slotted for a few top spots. Every organisation should have a roadmap that offers organisations a framework and advice on how to create a robust succession planning program that aligns talent management with the vision of the company, ensures employees have development opportunities to hone their leadership skills, and guarantees that the organization has a leadership plan in place for success in the future. As companies begin to develop a succession planning process, they should consider these fundamental issues: High Potential programmes, internal development, Diversity issues and Leadership support. Companies make many mistakes when it comes to succession planning. Organisations use the past to plan for the future, miss getting the Board support, not making succession part of the culture and allowing wrong people to make succession decisions. A succession planning program compiles the skills, abilities and goals of each employee, compares them to the needs of current and future roles, and tracks employee progress toward being ready to fill those roles. A roadmap can be structured into three phases to help you implement the planning and execution of you succession planning program - "Plan," "Do" and "Review" of succession planning. As companies expand beyond 200 to 300 employees, it becomes challenging to oversee talent management and succession planning efforts on paper. You cannot effectively track the career development progress of hundreds of employees using spread sheets and sticky notes. While there are many enterprise applications for succession planning, you need to equip your team with the models and tools.