By: Shawn Desgrosellier
There I was, in the depth of a phone conversation with a CEO discussing the future of his organization. He was experiencing one of life's greatest challenges for a Founder and CEO - succession planning. He used three categories that were in his opinion most important: alignment of the team, selecting the successor, and mentally preparing to let go of control.
The evaluation and alignment of the current team requires the experience to first of all understand the needs of the business. The successor needs to earn the respect of each employee and openly evaluate their skill set, identify with thier strengths, and move them into the right position for the best interest of the organization. Without the team, there is no company. The successor needs to have the right emotional strength to not only make the decision but to more importantly win over the employees and get their full support. "Rally the troops and charge the hill", mentality by all.
Selecting the right successor is far more complicated than the evaluation and alignment of the team. The company and it's success was created by the founder and due to the fact the organization was built around the competencies and beliefs of the founder make the search for the right successor even more complicated. When there is a business with a history of success and an existing employee base with decades of tenure this is a huge undertaking. The process will include a comprehensive evaluation of the organization, culture, client or customer base, reputation, history, niche or value proposition in the market, employees and their backgrounds, culture and so on...no detail should go overlooked and a handful of scenarios should be taken into consideration. This candidate ideally is already hired and has a proven track record with the organization. That however, is not always the case and often times the best candidate to succeed a founder is working elsewhere.
What happens when a founder leaves the company, what happens to the employees, what happens to the culture, and how do you mitigate to the best of your ability to find a person who can make the transition and hold it all together? The magic question- who will it be? It can't be emotional- this is business and this one of the paramount business decisions a founder or CEO will ever make. The person needs to be the perfect blend of leader, motivator, strategist, communicator, politician, and prepared to work harder than ever before.
Releasing Control- the behemoth! Release of control is the most challenging part of succession planning for this CEO and Founder. He was so torn with what he will do after he is no longer the decision maker and how can he help them and guide them from afar. He knew they were going to make mistakes but what worried him most was what made me write this post. He wanted them to continue to take risks and sieze opportunities. The CEO knew that without a little guts there was going to be no glory and the problem is that he is the only one that remembers the risks he took to get them to the place they are today. The same risks are required to continue to grow the organization by seizing opportunities. "Saving for a raing day", he said was being ready and able to strike when the time was right. Meanwhile, always knowing in the back of his mind that it might not work the way he intended. It took decades of making good decisions that built their foundation but it was when his experience and knowledge game him the confidence to take the big leaps that paid off and ultimately made the company what it is today. If it were not for those decisions and risks- we would be a very different company.
This final challenge is like a final thesis- and as he said to me "if there is anything I do right, this one has to be my masterpiece".
