By: Debbie Taylor
Don’t Just Fill the Seat
When someone leaves an organization, the natural reaction is to ask:
Who can replace them?
But a departure—whether planned or unexpected—creates an opportunity to ask a much more important question:
What does our organization need to accomplish over the next several years, and what capabilities will we need to get there?
That is the real opportunity in succession planning. It isn’t simply identifying the next person in line or finding someone whose resume looks like the person who is leaving.
It is organizational planning.
Apple Offers an Interesting Example
Look at Apple’s leadership transitions over the past three decades.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was struggling. Apple needed product vision. Jobs helped redefine what Apple could be and created products consumers didn’t yet know they wanted.
When Tim Cook became CEO in 2011, Apple was in a very different position. The product vision was established. Cook brought deep operational and supply-chain expertise and an ability to execute and scale that vision globally.
And now Apple has transitioned to John Ternus, an executive who spent much of his career in hardware engineering and product development.
Three leaders with different strengths for three different chapters of the company.
The lesson is simple:
The needs of the business should define the successor—not the background of the predecessor.
A Vacancy Is a Decision Point
This applies well beyond the CEO’s office.
Imagine a VP of Operations who has been with a transportation company for 20 years announces a retirement. The easiest response is to pull out the existing job description and begin looking for another experienced operations executive.
But first, ask what the business will require from Operations over the next three to five years.
Perhaps the company is planning significant growth or acquisitions. Technology may change how the operation runs. The organization may have strong operators but a weak leadership bench. Customer expectations may be changing. Or perhaps Operations and Commercial need to work together differently.
If those are the challenges ahead, why recreate a position designed for the challenges behind us?
A vacancy should be a decision point and not an automatic backfill.
Take Inventory Before You Recruit
Before defining the next hire, take inventory of the team you already have:
- What does the business need to accomplish over the next three to five years?
- What capabilities will be required?
- Which capabilities already exist on the team?
- Where are the gaps or blind spots?
- What knowledge or relationships are concentrated in the person leaving?
- Can we develop what we need internally, or do we need to bring something new into the organization?
Only then should you define the role.
You may discover that you don’t need a direct replacement. Responsibilities may need to be restructured. An internal successor may need development in one or two areas. Or the next leader may need a very different background from the person who previously held the position.
That is the difference between succession planning and replacement planning.
Succession Planning Never Starts with a Resignation
If the first time an organization discusses succession is when someone gives notice, it isn’t really succession planning. It is recruiting.
Succession planning means regularly looking across the organization and asking:
- Which positions would be particularly difficult to replace tomorrow?
- Where is critical knowledge concentrated in one person?
- Who has the potential to take on more responsibility?
- What experiences do they need today to be ready two or three years from now?
- What capabilities will we need in the future that don’t exist today?
And this shouldn’t be limited to the executive suite. A great shop manager, terminal leader, salesperson, engineer or frontline supervisor can leave just as significant a hole as an executive.
Succession planning should follow critical capability and not organizational hierarchy.
Too often, organizations conduct searches backwards:
Someone leaves → Find similar candidates → Compare resumes → Select the best replacement
Consider reversing the process:
Business objectives → Team inventory → Capability gaps → Role requirements → Internal and external candidates
Now the question becomes:
Who gives this organization the best chance of accomplishing what comes next?
A Lesson for Candidates, Too
The same principle applies when considering your own career. Don’t simply prepare to explain your history. Understand what the organization needs from the position and connect your experience to those needs.
Your resume tells the hiring team what you have done. Your conversation should help them understand why what you have done matters to what they need to do next.
Don’t Automatically Refill the Seat
Every departure creates disruption, but it also creates an opportunity.
Before filling the seat, look around the table and then look three to five years down the road.
What will the organization need to accomplish? What capabilities do you already have? What are you missing?
Then decide who belongs in the seat.
Succession planning isn’t about replacing the person who is leaving.
It is about building the organization you will need for achieving future outcomes.