By: Shawna Simcik

Recently my husband and I were reminiscing on athletics in high school. He was a skilled tight end for the Horizon Hawks, and highly sought after from universities for his athletic ability. I was astounded to find out that as a sophomore in high school, he was receiving letters from Tom Osborne, head coach from the, at-the-time, undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers. Sophomore year. Can you imagine? He wouldn’t be eligible for recruitment until his senior year, yet the university scouts were knee-deep in entertaining and priming a young athlete two years prior to his eligibility. A simple note of which my husband still has today set his future into motion.

Similar to a university or even the NFL– these scouts are evaluating talent to bring the very best to their organizations ultimately driving the success of the program, or alternatively, the demise of their program.  Can you say the same in your organization?

What if this buzz word we throw around – succession planning – became a standard discussion in your organization? Could recruiters and the internal training and development teams work in tandem to identify, recruit and prime all candidates for future roles in your organization? What if we simply wrote a “we notice you” note to all emerging leaders or individual contributors who are demonstrating successful characteristics and living the values of culture? Could you imagine our engagement scores and retention figures? We must look deep into our companies, take the time to evaluate our talent and help them by providing meaningful development opportunities and make career paths clear, whether that is up, down, vertical or across the organization.

Succession planning is not and should not be a quick 60-minute meeting of the executives postulating on who they think may be “the right” next level leader. Succession planning should be a strategic priority for you in 2020 and beyond. Evaluating and building your bench strength must be an ongoing discussion that dives deep into your internal talent as well as a review of external talent that you may need, could need and will need in the future.

What else can we learn from the scouts on how to look differently at our talent and succession planning?

If you are looking at ways to engage and retain your key talent in 2020 and leadership development is a strategy you are exploring, check out ICCs Accelerator Program™. Give us a call to learn more at 855-865-4400 or email us at [email protected] or www.accelerateleadership.org