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One of the most uneasy discussions we
have watched both boards and executive directors avoid is the issue of
succession planning. Boards avoid the discussion because they don't want EDs to
be offended by the conversation - offended to think the board is raising the
issue because they are considering getting rid of the ED, when all they are
trying to do is protect the organization from the inevitable, whenever the
inevitable occurs.
EDs avoid the discussion because they
don't want their boards to worry that they might be considering leaving.
And then there are the situations no
one wants to talk about - those where the ED maintains his/her control by
virtue of the perception that no one else could possibly do his/her job. And in
those situations, the ED definitely does not want to talk about succession
planning!
In our experience, the reason boards
and EDs alike avoid this conversation is because they don't really know what to
say or what to do. They know they should do something to plan, but
what?
Regardless of the reasons behind the
failure to talk about succession planning, the cold truth is that no one lasts
forever, and that none of us knows when the time may come, by choice or
otherwise, for a key person to leave the organization.
And while our strongest recommendation
is that the discussion about succession planning happen openly and honestly,
under an umbrella of mutual trust, we also know sometimes that is not going to
happen
Therefore, the following is an
approach to succession planning that can be used both by those who want to
address the issue head on, and by those who want to simply be sure the pieces
are in place, without calling what they are doing "succession
planning."
Systems vs.
Individuals
The
critical component to successful succession planning is, to the best extent
possible, replacing reliance on individuals with reliance on systems. We know
far too many nonprofit leaders who, when asked the question, "Do you have a
succession plan?" have answered, "Yes - Joe is my succession plan. He is my
assistant, and he knows everything about this place!"
When we ask what would happen if Joe
wasn't the board's choice, or if Joe left even before the ED leaves - well,
that is when we typically see that deer-in-the-headlights look. "Now what am I
supposed to do!?!?"
That is why the key to successful
succession planning is to establish systems that make it possible for the
organization to go on, as best as possible, when a key individual leaves.
Systems, not individuals. And that goes for all key staff - the Executive
Director, and any other critical positions.
Whose Responsibility Is
It?
If
there are no systems in place to ensure things will run smoothly in the event
of the sudden departure of a key employee, who is accountable? With the board
sitting in that box at the top of the organizational chart, the board is
accountable for ensuring the smooth operation of the organization. That doesn't
mean the board has to DO the work, but board members do have to ensure the work
will get done.
As the ED's boss, it is further the
board's job to ensure there is a succession plan in place. Who else could be
responsible for requiring that of your employee?
And if the ED does not have a
succession plan for his/her own key employees, it is the board's responsibility
to ensure he/she creates one. Again, it is not the board's responsibility to
create that plan for the other staff, but they are accountable for ensuring
such a plan exists.
On the flip side of this discussion,
though - the flip side of "We're doing this because we have to..." - is a great
benefit. And the benefit goes beyond the establishment of safeguards if key
employees leave. The benefit is that, by gathering the pieces of information
needed and building the systems that can help the organization transition, the
board will learn a great deal more about how the organization does its work.
And that can only strengthen the board's ability to govern.
The Board's Role in
Succession Planning
While
we tend to think of operational issues when we consider succession planning
(and the rest of this article does indeed address those in detail), when
discussing succession of your Executive Director, the more important side is
the strategic side.
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Story:
A board who had
never discussed Vision or Values had an ongoing disconnect with its visionary
Executive Director. The ED was known throughout the community and across the
country as a passionate leader in her field, accomplishing more than most
humans could dream of when it comes to caring for those in need. The board,
thinking all that "vision stuff" to be superfluous, formed a Succession
Planning Committee comprised of business people who identified a list of
business skills they wanted the replacement ED to have. When their ED retired,
she was replaced with a CPA who had great business credentials.
In no time the staff rebelled, the
organization's community partners rebelled, and the organization went into a
tailspin that no business skills could cure. After 18 months, the new ED was
gone. Finally, the board was ready to talk about the Vision and Values at the
heart of the organization's work.
As you look at your community, at the
founders who have retired and the replacements who have failed, you will be
surprised at how often Vision and Values are at the core of that
failure. |
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Therefore, Succession Planning should
start with the two most critical pieces of any organization's overall being:
Its Vision and its Values.
We have watched many founders retire
over the years. And we have seen both great successes and horrible failures in
the succession process. In our experience, Vision and Values are absolutely the
two most critical issues in determining whether your ED's successor will take
the organization to the next level, or be gone within 18 very uncomfortable
months.
We cannot stress this enough. Vision
and Values are neither esoteric nor superfluous. They are, quite simply,
everything.
Vision and Community Impact:
For succession planning to prepare the organization for its next
leader, the board must have a clear vision for the future the organization
wants to create for the community, to know what community vision to seek in
your Executive Director's successor. And while a vision for the future of the
organization itself is helpful, it is more important that your leader have a
vision for the community impact he/she wants to create.
Whether your organization's vision is
for a community where every person has his/her basic needs met; a community
where the natural environment is revered; a community where the arts are held
precious as an expression of the human spirit; a community that is
compassionate towards all creatures, animal and human - whatever that vision
may be, a commitment to working towards that vision must be the first criteria
you seek in the replacement for your current CEO.
Having an ongoing Community Impact
plan in place is helpful (and highly recommended), but if you do nothing else,
be clear about the community vision you will be entrusting to your new
ED.
Core Values:
The other area
that is critical for success is a clearly articulated, written set of core
values, against which the board will measure its future director. Does the
organization have a set of core philosophies that determine what behaviors are
appropriate, and that provides guidance when tough decisions need to be made?
If your organization has never
discussed its core values, and does not have a means for measuring whether or
not actions and decisions adhere to those values, you will not be able to
determine if prospects for the ED position share those values. And it is
important that those values not only be discussed, but written and adopted, to
ensure that no one is operating under the assumption of values (assuming we all
share the same values, because we all care about the organization), and that
everyone clearly understands what is acceptable and appropriate.
As an aside, it is frequently these
very issues that lead to a founder seemingly wanting to "hang on forever." The
more we interview those very founders, the more we find that the thing stopping
their retirement is the fear that the board will "replace me with someone who
doesn't have a passion for our mission and vision." If you can address that
core issue, you will be taking huge strides in moving the organization to its
next level, even if your current Executive Director stays on for another 20
years.
Does your board systems for ensuring Vision and
Values rule
everything the organization does? If not, this article can
help.
 CLICK HERE
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The Operational
Pieces
Succession planning sounds like it's
hard - like it takes a lot of time, a lot of "planning" time. In fact, in most
organizations, succession planning is just a matter of making sure there are
some key pieces in place, to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. The
following are some of the more critical of those pieces. If you have others you
have used, we hope you will let us know, so we can add your thoughts to the
list!
Note: These pieces
relate not just to the Executive Director, but to other key positions as well -
and some of those key positions may just be volunteers! If there is a
mission-critical position that would cause serious problems if suddenly left
vacant, you will want to be sure to have these pieces in place for those key
positions. We suggest the Board and ED work together to determine which
positions should be included when the Board talks about "key positions" or "key
employees."
 Current Job Description
Are the job descriptions for your key
employees current? Or do they date back to when they were hired 10 or 20 years
ago?
Part of the annual evaluation process
for your ED should be the update of his/her job description, whether the update
is done by the ED and the board separately, or jointly. This is a critical part
of doing an effective evaluation anyway - having that tool as one among a
handful against which to measure performance. By making this step a part of the
regular evaluation process (you do regularly evaluate your ED, don't you?),
there is no stress that a request to update the job description might be coming
from the board's desire to use it to hire the ED's replacement.
In addition, part of the evaluation
process should also be to ensure the ED has updated job descriptions for all
HIS employees, for the same reason.
What Do You Do?
Different from a job description, a
task list is simply a list of what the employee does.
| • |
What do you do every
day? |
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What do you do once a week (and
when)? |
| • |
What do you do monthly? Quarterly?
Annually? |
| • |
What do you do when it needs to be
done, or check on intermittently? |
This task list can be invaluable in
the event of the sudden departure of a key employee, as it helps a replacement
more quickly come up to speed. And in the event of a temporary departure, such
as an illness or accident, that list can help to more easily distribute the
employee's workload among co-workers until he/she is back on the
job.
Calendar
Stemming from that task list, and in
addition to it, have key staff fill out an annual calendar, where the board can
quickly see all those things that happen regularly throughout the year, as it
relates to "keeping the doors open and the license on the wall" as a client
used to say. Take a large sheet of paper - flip chart sized if you like, but
certainly 11" x 17" at the smallest. Turn it horizontally, and create a
calendar like the one below, labeling the first box with the month that starts
your fiscal year.
JUL
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AUG |
SEP |
OCT |
NOV |
DEC |
JAN
|
FEB |
MAR |
APR |
MAY |
JUN |
Have the Executive Director fill in
the critical things that have to happen each month - reporting dates, licensing
dates, filing dates, event dates.
And then the Executive Director will
ask the same of his/her key staff. Every fall, we contact the university for
interns. Every August, we prepare for the audit. And etc.
Combined with the task list, the
calendar makes it less likely that something will fall through the cracks
during the transition.
Where is Everything?
One of the most confounding things to
happen when someone leaves suddenly is the reality that you have no idea where
they keep the combination to the safe (or who else knows it), the keys to the
HVAC unit, the checkbook, the alarm codes, or any one of the hundreds of
critical "things" we take for granted until we cannot find them. No matter how
large or how small your facility, not knowing where stuff is can be one of the
most frustrating aspects of the sudden departure of a key employee.
Have the ED require that the staff
keep a list of key "stuff" and keep that list updated, in the event a critical
employee other than the ED leaves. And then do the same for the ED. The easiest
way to start the list is to have it stem from the Task List above. What do you
do every day, and what do you need, that might not be readily obvious, to do
that? Clearly we don't want them listing every pencil in the place. But if they
understand the purpose, they will be able to tell you that they keep the key to
the safe hidden in the 3rd envelope in the file marked, "Birthdays."
As an aside, this "search for stuff"
often reveals other issues you may not have been aware of. For example, if the
only key to the storage unit is on the key ring of the maintenance man, and he
says, "I have the only key, because I don't trust anyone else with it," then
that is probably a conversation worth pursuing for a whole number of reasons
having nothing to do with succession planning. What is in the shed that is so
valuable? Is there a problem with employee theft? Is the maintenance man
paranoid? Should we be worried about better security for whatever is in there?
You can see the range of questions that might stem from the simple question,
"Where is everything?"
Critical Relationships
For every critical employee making
your organization work smoothly, there are probably a number of outside people
who help make that work happen. For the bookkeeper, it may be the CPA, or the
payroll service. For a program person, it may be a group of 6 other program
representatives around town, to whom she turns when specific issues arise. Or
it may be a multi-disciplinary team from within the organization that assists
with specific functions.
Will someone new immediately know the
relationships that are critical to getting the job done?
This will be another listing activity.
For every task, program, or function of the job description (whatever makes
sense given the employee's role), have the employee make a list of who he/she
absolutely relies on for ensuring that function gets done. This may be internal
employees, volunteers, key community partners.
Depending on the complexity of the
relationships, it is sometimes easier to depict the more complicated
relationships graphically, rather than in a list. (And it is often easier for
the new person, as well as the board, to understand that complexity of
relationships if it is done graphically.) Whether that is done by bubble chart,
by program flow chart, or however makes sense, getting those relationships down
on paper is often one of the most overlooked steps in the succession planning
process.
Fund Development / Rainmaking
The hardest relationships to chart are
often the friends that keep the organization going through their financial and
other assistance. If your donor list is not complete, this is the time to get
moving to ensure it is comprehensive, with the appropriate notes about who
knows whom (and from where), who maintains which relationships, special notes
about birthdays, interests, and etc. Especially in small organizations, this
information is often stored in the ED's head. Even if it requires an hour a
week for 2 months, with an employee or volunteer taking notes to be typed into
the database, while the ED verbally provides key information about each donor,
you will be glad beyond glad you went to the trouble to get this
done.
Once the donor list is intact, there
are often other special people who fall through the cracks when transition time
comes. These are the folks who may run into the former ED at an event, and when
the ED asks, "Are you still helping out?" the reply is, "They've never even
called me!" The most likely reason the board or the ED's replacement hasn't
called is that they did not know this was someone important, simply because
what that person helped with wasn't on the radar.
An exercise that is helpful for a
variety of reasons is to ask, "Who would you thank for making your job easier
if this were your last week on earth?" It's funny, when we ask that question,
and we get past the obvious ones, such as, "I would thank my staff, and the
board," people fairly quickly get down to the REAL important folks. The guy who
picks up the trash around the property once a month. The gal who always gives
you a discount at the bookstore, because she loves the organization. Have the
ED go back as if this were her last week on earth, and list everyone she would
thank for making her job easier, more rewarding.
As I said, in addition to being a
great tool for succession planning purposes, this is a powerful exercise for a
number of reasons, and we are quite sure you will find many ways to use this
list once it is created. But also, know that this is a joyful exercise to go
through, and you will watch your ED smile as she thinks of all the people who
help make the organization's work a success.
Redundancy
We have saved the most important for
last. Humans have 2 kidneys. Hospitals have back-up generators. TV stations
have extra cameras.
Does every critical position in your
organization have that kind of redundancy? Because redundancy is one of the
surest approaches to short term stability in the face of the loss of a key
employee.
There are 2 steps every board should
take to ensure there is organizational redundancy, in the event of an
emergency.
The first is to have a policy in place
that provides for the following:
The Executive Director will ensure
that no fewer than 2 other key employees are familiar enough with the critical
duties performed by the Executive Director that those employees could ensure
those duties are accomplished in the event of the Executive Director's sudden
or extended absence.
The Executive Director will further
ensure that the same is true for each position considered mission-critical for
the organization's overall functionality. For each key position, there shall be
no fewer than 2 other employees familiar enough with the critical duties
performed by those key positions, to ensure those duties are accomplished in
the event of a sudden or extended absence by one of those key employees.
The Board may want to re-word these
sample policies to better fit your organization.
Whether the key position is that of a
volunteer or a staff person, or even (and especially in small organizations) a
board member, there should be the requirement that someone else knows how to do
the job. If the critical position is complex, there may be one person who can
do one aspect, and another who knows other parts of the job. The goal is not
that the job be duplicated in the body of one person, but that someone - or a
group of someones - can get the job done until a replacement can be
found.
I mentioned that there are 2 steps to
this part of the process. The second step is monitoring. The question should be
asked every year. It should be part of the evaluation process, ensuring the ED
has asked these questions of his/her employees as well.
Your critical systems need back-up.
And with the vast majority of nonprofit organizations, the most critical
systems are people. Make sure there is enough redundancy to ensure a smooth
transition.
Monitoring
In all cases, as with all things related to boards, planning is only part of
the process. The board must annually monitor to ensure its plans are being
implemented, its directives being followed. Much of the work described in this
article can be done as part of the ED's evaluation process, but it can also be
monitored more officially at a board meeting - an Annual Succession Plan
Review.
However you do it, it is the board
that is accountable for ensuring this work is done. And the only way to ensure
is to monitor.
Ask the Board
Finally, ask the board for input.
Depending on the organization, the board may have different things board
members are worried about. So take 20 minutes at your next board meeting, and
have board members list their answers to this question:
If the ED took
his vacation this year and never came back, what would scare the pants off the
board about having to ensure the operation keeps
going? |
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A
Word About Succession Planning for Key Board Members
In some
circumstances, there are key players on the board, who again, if they left,
would leave the organization in a world of hurt. The most common of those
situations is when a founder is still on the board. (Having been one of those
founders-on-the-board, I know this can be a tough one!) But there are other
circumstances where a board member has made him/herself
indispensable.
By selectively going through the
activities noted for the staff, and especially asking, "What else is the board
worried about?", you will easily be able to build a plan for ensuring the
smooth operations of the organization in the event that board member does
leave.
A BONUS:
The
peace of mind that comes with succession planning is worth the time it takes to
institute these systems. Once the systems are in place, updating them is
typically an easy task. It is the gathering of this information in the first
place, and making sure the organization is, to the greatest extent possible,
relying on systems rather than individuals, that will make those employee
transitions less stressful.
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