Building a Deep Leadership Bench: Promises and Pitfalls
An underappreciated aspect of leadership is the ability to build a deep bench – that is, to create a robust executive team replete with up-and-coming...
By Donna Padilla and Raj Ramachandran, Ed.D.
An underappreciated aspect of leadership is the ability to build a deep bench – that is, to create a robust executive team replete with up-and-coming leaders who have great potential, are committed to the organization, and represent its future leadership. Building a bench is an imperfect art – some rising stars will leave, some might not pan out as hoped – but it can be a key to leadership stability and long-term organizational success. It can be an important recruitment tool as well. Executives want to be part of an organization that develops its talent and offers pathways for advancement.
Building a deep, capable leadership team has a number of components: identifying mission-critical roles, hiring and developing exceptional executives to fill these roles now and in the future, getting leaders committed to the organization for the long-term, and ensuring the organization is invested in its leadership team.
These activities are synonymous with succession planning. Executive succession planning – succession management is also an appropriate term – is something most healthcare organizations are committed to yet few do and do well. Many hospitals and health systems have created succession plans that they then put on a shelf and forget. Strong succession management is an ongoing, iterative activity. It must exist in parallel with strong leadership development to ensure that the right candidates get the right training for their next roles.
In this article, we make a case for the strategic importance of developing a deep bench, break down the challenges and pitfalls to strong succession management, and share hands-on, practical solutions for success in developing a succession plan in a thoughtful, strategic way. In addition to providing a tactical overview for how to approach succession management, this article will outline key questions that healthcare CEOs (as well as boards, CHROs, and other senior leaders who may participate) should ask themselves about their readiness for succession efforts, and to highlight some of the classic pitfalls that prevent organizations from successful succession management.
Best Practices in Executive Succession
Building out a leadership team should align with strategic imperatives. From the CEO’s perspective, executive team succession is also a matter of cementing one’s legacy. How one’s tenure will be viewed includes the long-term strength of the leadership team and how the organization performs once a top leader has exited the stage. Are the “cupboards bare” or does the organization have a robust leadership team (including a CEO-in-waiting) who can carry on the successes of the past and continue to carry out its mission?
Whether you are a CEO or other senior executive, there are critical steps to fielding a robust leadership team:
Step 1: Perform an internal needs assessment: Engage your leaders to understand their challenges, which will help you create a recruitment and development strategy based on those existing needs.
Step 2: Create leadership essentials or success profiles for critical roles: Think about what qualities leaders should possess to create an agile organization. These profiles should then serve as your North Star, giving direction and focus to your talent review, development, and succession planning, which are intertwined.
Step 3: Conduct a deep internal leadership assessment: Once you’ve created your success profiles, compile a database of every executive or high-potential candidate at your hospital or health system. This will guide you in determining who will ultimately be considered for a future leadership role in your organization.
Step 4. Prioritize leadership development and build a leadership development culture: It’s important to think about talent development in a systemic way and make it a part of your organization’s management culture. To do this, you should build a system that goes well beyond typical training programs. (You’ll need to work with your top HR leader or people officer on this.) Within your own organization, this could include high-potential leadership development programs (academies), mentorship/coaching opportunities, and creating a culture where continuous improvement and learning are valued and encouraged. We believe that leadership development should not just be a function but a cornerstone of an organization’s culture, with continuous learning and mentorship embedded into the daily practices of all leaders.
Step 5. Remain agile and flexible: Regularly review and adjust the plans above to meet your evolving/changing organizational needs, including the use of interim leaders and on-demand talent to fill critical gaps. Geographic flexibility may be important to fill certain roles.
Questions to Consider
Core questions you should be asking as you prepare for succession planning include:
- Is our leadership team of today equipped for tomorrow’s challenges?
- What positions and skill sets do we need to build or scale in the coming years to align with our strategic goals?
- Should we ramp up our succession management efforts? Can we build off previous efforts or should we re-evaluate and re-launch?
- What is our process to identify the growing executive talent needs of our organization and support existing team members who require the skills and credentials to address them?
- How can I influence and inspire others to do great work and lead healthcare in the future? Am I leaving a legacy that I’ll be proud of and will endure?
Thoughtful consideration of these questions will ensure a legacy that lasts well beyond your own tenure at your organization.
Pitfalls to Avoid in Succession Management
While the need and desire for succession management and bench-building are usually present within most organizations, something prevents the successful execution. Here is a look at the top pitfalls of succession planning, and our advice on how to overcome them:
Lack of direction and ownership: Many succession plans are created without clear objectives and responsibilities. The first question to ask is, “Who owns succession planning?” Is it the board? Is it the current leadership team, led by the CEO? Is it the CHRO?
Next ask, “What is the end game? What is the purpose or goal of the succession plan?” Those answers will give planning shape and structure.
Conflating succession planning with contingency planning: There’s a big difference between the two. A contingency plan might mean someone has a leader’s password and can jump in tomorrow and keep the lights on if they suddenly leave, or might specify who would steer the ship if the CEO became incapacitated. That is not the same as succession planning, which is carefully and strategically planned, becoming ingrained in the organization’s culture. Organizations should treat leadership and succession as an ongoing corporate discipline rather than a periodic bout of emergency surgery.
Putting people before process: It’s important to set up a process for succession planning before starting to search for the right candidates, whether internal or external. If there is no process in place that assesses your organization’s future direction and leadership needs, then succession becomes dependent upon the people available rather than the roles to be filled.
Focusing solely on process: Once you’ve established a succession planning process, take stock of the human component. Effectively communicate expectations for identified candidates and the development you hope they will attain. Give special attention to individuals who are key performers but perhaps aren’t destined for higher roles, to ensure they don’t feel left behind. At the end of the day, these are people with distinct personalities, talents, and skills. Take the human side into consideration to ensure succession management is in their best interests.
Lack of commitment: Many organizations don’t realize how much time and effort succession management takes. To do it well, you must be committed to the process, keep it on the leadership agenda, and embed it in the culture of your organization. It becomes easier over time as your organizations builds the muscles to do effective succession management.
Not enough flexibility/agility: If your succession plan is too rigid, you might lose a worthy candidate who doesn’t fit the exact description you’ve created for a given role. Or you might miss the opportunity for someone who is a “culture add” vs. a culture fit. You must be able to think — and go — outside the box if you want dynamic candidates that can be long-term contributors to your organization.
Reluctance to change course: A candidate who was the right person with the right skills and talent for a role five years ago may not be the best person for the job today. Organizations need to take a critical look at where they’re headed and what positions they need to get there, even if it means eliminating a candidate or a role that was previously part of the strategic plan.
Nearsightedness: Demands for talent and skills change over time. Given the challenging, fragmented, and ever-evolving state of U.S. healthcare today, the key strategic roles of five or 10 years from now may be different from those in existence today. Continue to adapt your strategy for the marketplace, then adapt your succession plans to account for emerging positions. One example: hospitals and health systems now need leadership for their artificial intelligence activities (such as a Chief AI Officer) where there wasn’t a need in the past. Expect more unanticipated roles to crop up.
Hiring from your personal network: Many executives have a running list of colleagues whom they hope to bring onto their teams or promote, as the case may be. While this can work on occasion, it’s not a recipe for building a deep bench. Today’s need for agility and flexibility means casting a wide, objective net for members of your leadership team.
Leaving a Legacy
One’s leadership legacy is in setting up the organization for success well after you’ve departed. You can do this by running an excellent organization that is equipped for the future, but also by building a deep, talented team, creating a strong succession management infrastructure, and avoiding the many pitfalls of succession planning. You’ll be gone but your name will live on in the people you’ve put in position to lead once you’re gone.
Donna Padilla is Executive Partner of WittKieffer’s Healthcare Market. Raj Ramachandran is a Senior Partner of the firm’s Leadership Advisory solution.
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