APS Blog

Effective Succession Management: Latest Research

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:00:00 Z

Recent CRF research co-sponsored by APS culminated in a full day’s event “Effective Succession Management” held in London UK, the imagery used to brand the event was a Rubik's Cube. Much like the infamous puzzle, HR professionals consider succession management a challenge. But also like the puzzle, once the keys to success become clearer, the solution seems obvious. The recommendations coming out of the research should come as no surprise – of course, there should be clarity around purpose, alignment with business strategy, “thoughtful transparency” and so on. We inherently know these things work.

It is surprising, however, that only 14% of CRF research respondents currently use diagnostic testing, and only 26% use a high-potential framework. When there is so much at stake with leadership choices and talent development, the results may be a sign that not enough is known about available evidence-based methodologies. Reliable data, from inputs such as psychometrics, development centres and multi-rater feedback offset the inherent bias of self-reporting and manager ratings, and when used professionally, add value to an organisation’s talent review process.

The Politics of Potential

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:00:00 Z

HR professionals typically agree that a more integrated, transparent, and strategic response to succession management is needed. Identifying high-potentials is part of that need and now, more than ever, succession management requires a reliable yet delicate approach. As outlined in 'The Politics of Potential - how organisational politics are poking holes in your high-potential programme', the old ways of selecting and developing leadership talent needs a shake-up; and the skills necessary to emerge as a leader aren’t the same as those required to perform effectively as one.

Adding a data-driven approach, based on reliable psychometrics and a verified high-potential framework can add value to a company’s succession planning toolkit. This e-book discusses the risk organisations take if they only focus on politically savvy 'go-getters'.

As a way to reliably assess the strengths and challenges, values and drivers, and possible career derailers of each person as a unique individual, Hogan’s model offers a comprehensive application along these three leadership dimensions:

1) Foundations

2) Emergence

3) Effectiveness

For more information please contact heather@advancedpeoplestrategies.co.uk

HR’s Biggest Challenge: Succession Planning

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:00:00 Z

In the 1970s, only 8 percent of S&P 500 CEOs were recruited externally. That number grew to 22 percent in 2014. Yet, outsiders are almost 7 times more likely to be dismissed within a short tenure than homegrown CEOs. No matter how much a board learns about an outside candidate, executive stakeholders simply have a better understanding of an internal contender’s strengths and weaknesses, especially as they relate to the specifics of the current business landscape and strategic objectives. As a result of the inherent “information misalignment,” the chance of making a mistake is much higher for a CEO hired from outside the company.

Most stakeholders will admit that they know this already. But what they won’t admit is that the expressed need to bring in an outside CEO is evidence that neither the board, the current (or previous) CEO nor the chief of human resources successfully performed one of their most crucial, shared responsibilities: building a sustainable leadership pipeline that readies executives and potential executives to advance at all levels of the organisation.

There is good reason effective succession planning eludes so many otherwise functional companies. Making inferences about future performance, the variance of organisational politics and a tendency to devote limited (if any) focus to assessing “hidden potential” often hinder otherwise valiant efforts. For example, there are several reasons an individual may be nominated to participate in a succession plan, but far too often these individuals are identified because they are socially skilled, confident and interested in influencing others and moving up the corporate ladder. However, just because an individual is rewarding to deal with, doesn’t mean that the organisation should devote resources to his/her development.

When it comes to desired leadership outcomes, emergence does not necessarily equal effectiveness. If beating the competition remains the ultimate goal, an organisation’s leadership pipeline needs to be filled with those who can successfully lead high-performing teams. Accurately identifying top talent must involve science in the form of objective, relevant validated data. Despite guidance from the academic and business literature, some companies still base these important decisions on politically fraught processes or confound successful emergence with effective leadership. But clarity is not unattainable. According to various studies, successful managers tend to spend their time managing up by networking and politicking, whereas effective managers spend their time managing down by taking care of subordinates and driving team performance. Rarely do the two groups overlap.

What’s more, there is a common misunderstanding amongst most executives that all individuals considered for a succession plan should be able to effectively lead people, as opposed to advancing as a leader of processes or thought (i.e. subject matter expert), for example. Tech companies in the Fortune 100 have pioneered the notion that not everyone makes a great people leader. In addition to the typical “high potential” evaluation models, organizations like Microsoft and Cisco smartly consider other “leadership” skill sets that lend themselves to domains such as operational efficiency or innovation. In other words, insisting on professional people-leadership development for an individual who lacks the interest or compulsion to guide others toward stretch goals only sets up that valued employee for inevitable failure.

Well-validated personality assessments give a preview into which path forward is most conducive to an individual’s inherent behavioral patterns and latent interests. Those who have the proclivity to impose structure and the drive to keep things predictable will demonstrate behaviors conducive to process leadership. Those who have the propensity to seek inspirational ideas and who also emphasize the importance of imagination will likely have an easier time in a thought leadership role. And the working styles of those compelled to stay knowledgeably up-to-date as well as demand sound rationales to determine courses of action will be more conducive to data-dependent jobs. Having such information available in easy-to-understand terminology can help stakeholders vested in the organizational well-being leverage employees’ natural tendencies for more informed and specific succession planning.

Our business landscape continues to shift and evolve at an ever-faster rate. People represent the difference between an organization’s success and failure. The stakes of correctly identifying and developing the next generation of leaders could not be higher. Focusing on specific, differentiating options for advancement early in the careers of valued employees will only serve to benefit the organization. Basing the related evaluations of potential on objective data-driven metrics will help HR overcome the ultimate challenge: keeping the pipeline from entry level all the way to the CEO flush with options for filling vacancies.

This article originally appeared in Human Resource Executive.

Potential, Performance and Promises

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:00:00 Z

Traditionally, succession planning has been the process of identifying internal people to move into business-critical positions and leadership roles, often with a confidential, top-down, highly structured approach. Today, organisations are looking for simpler, faster and scientifically valid ways to identify successors; in essence, creating a more efficient talent “pipeline”.

Succession planning is often driven by senior executives seeking to reassure their boards (think classic “what if they get hit by a bus” scenarios) and entrusted to HR leaders to make it work. Creating a successful succession programme is not a simple task and HR leaders face numerous challenges. Organisational politics may influence who gets put on the fast track for promotion, creating disillusionment for those who are equally competent but less skilled at making themselves known. Long-term leaders may feel entitled to that next move up the ladder and be dismayed when external change agents are parachuted in to take the lead. Key talent may have been promised future opportunities that dissipate when business requirements shift or mentors leave.

Trying to ensure fairness and mindful of employee engagement, HR leaders have long sought to instil rigour in succession planning; giving rise to the popularity of nine-box grids and talent reviews. However, the time, money and effort put into assessing potential and reviewing performance often creates mixed results; for all the reasons we associate with the realities of a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous).

Past performance is not predictive of future success if the role changes in scope, scale, or complexity and it may be time to add more rigour to the traditional nine-box framework. Adding inputs from reliable and valid personality-based and cognitive assessments, coupled with real-life performance data (multi-rater assessments , portfolio examples, performance reviews) can create more assurance. Technological innovations have also made it possible to assess skills in virtual environments, adding even more opportunities to identify the strengths and opportunities of future leaders.

High-Potential Capability Case Study

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:00:00 Z

A HR director of a rapidly growing manufacturing business wanted to identify high-potentials, at the request of the new CEO. They needed to review capability and identify the key skills needed to support their specific business strategy.

Starting with 12 members of the senior executive group, Hogan personality and cognitive assessments were used to identify key drivers as well as the likely everyday behaviours and potential for career derailers under pressure. This along with individual feedback helped the senior team create personal insights for their own performance goals as well as the desire to further define leadership expectations (what does good look like?). Additionally, the senior team undertook a Leadership programme of events using SkillsPilot, a Next-Gen cloud-based Assessment and Development platform, typically used to optimise leadership capability; led by a facilitator, leaders were assessed through relevant online business scenarios that tested the following 10 competencies:

Accountability
Decision Making
Driving for Results
Driving Performance
Driving Strategy
Inspiring Others
Integrity
Leading Others
Managing Resources
Teamwork

These competencies were used to identify appropriate exercises for their customised programme, ultimately resulting in 4 team - based scenarios (i.e. dealing with crisis management) and 3 individual ones (i.e. negotiating with a key flight risk ). Sessions were recorded and participants invited to self-assess against the competencies. Professional feedback reports were generated based on the ratings and commentary from trained observers, accompanied by targeted development suggestions. Overall results were further analysed against organisational metrics.

As we started with the senior executive and then moved through the next two levels of leadership, this process paved the way for significant outcomes – leaders were able to agree on what good performance looked like and used the data to cascade a unified vision throughout the organisation, ultimately establishing a more robust approach for succession planning. They also gained insights into how their leaders might derail, what engages them and what climate they need to create around their leaders to get the most out of their teams. Conducting these assessments virtually meant they could maintain business-as-usual activities, whilst gathering observable evidence around their skills profile, helping them to balance workloads and development needs.

Assessments conducted throughout three levels of management helped them further refine what they were looking for in terms of succession.
The online assessment/development programme provided opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills in different scenarios that could be observed and reviewed by the participant as well as other key stakeholders.
Professional feedback on leadership behaviour coupled with personality and cognitive results. generated powerful insights for individuals.

For HR directors tasked with the responsibility of finding a reliable process for identifying potential in the organisation, this project ticked a number of boxes; it combined the rigour of personality data with virtual assessment and development with the following benefits:

The company were able to identify business-critical skills
Natural strengths were benchmarked to guide their talent pipeline
Identification of skill gaps led to more targeted budget allocation for talent development.