Does making yourself redundant make sense? This does not mean putting your hand up for a big payout. What it means is that you can ensure that if you are no longer in your current role business continues as usual. It means that you have planned ahead. 

For Business Owners and C-Level executives responsible for managing business risks, this should be a KPI for all leaders in your organisation. 

Succession planning not only provides security for a business, but also has a positive impact within the whole team, as team members get to see the potential for advancement. They then also can see a career path, along with greener pastures within their current organisation. 

How many quality and potentially valuable employees leave your organisations because they can’t see a future. Worse still their future has not even been discussed with them. Their goals and ambitions may have been part of an annual appraisal discussion and left there with no follow up.

So what are the reasons behind the lack of succession or career planning?

Time? - We are all busy, however, how much time is needed to replace a team member, not to mention the cost of turnover. 

Leaders can sometimes feel that they are the only ones that can do the task as well as it needs to be done. - Take a step back in time and remember, that someone in authority who was smart enough to trust you when you first took on a leadership role. 

Heard this one a few times, - concern amongst team leaders and managers that developing team members can create a threat to themselves?

Not sure where to start? Well here are a couple of questions that may get you started;

Do you know what motivates your team members? Are you aware of their goals - business and personal?

Do you understand their skill set - at work and outside of work? Do they have skills that are unknown to you? It can be surprising what people do in their spare time and the interests they have outside of work that could prove valuable to the organisation. 

Have you completed a skills audit for your employee’s current role and then a role that they would like to get into within your organisation? This should include both hard skills and soft skills. 

Do your team members know what is available or what they may be suited to? This could be in their current department or maybe in something totally unrelated. It could be that they are in a situation where they don’t know what they don’t know?  Maybe Managers are not sure what team members may be suited to.

Just working through these couple of questions with those in your team will not only uncover some valuable information but also show them one important attribute about you. You care about them and their future. 

Use tools and assessments that are available to support this process. It may be a lot simpler and not as expensive as you think. I am very happy to have a discussion about this. 

Now the final point about why making yourself redundant makes sense. Active succession planning proves that you are a valuable and forward thinking manager who should be considered for advancement. Part of that consideration will include whether there is anybody that can step into your existing role without creating a void for the business. You have created a seamless transition environment. Well done. 

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