"Can you help me with succession planning?" is a question we are often asked by our Baby Boomer clients who own or manage businesses and organizations.  This was the topic of a recent coaching session with a CEO.  Over our ten year working relationship, we have taken this client through several visioning sessions for the organization, imagining optimum futuristic states and then putting together plans to realize those futures.  

So, in this session, I asked her to vision, or imagine, the organization without her.  After many years of dedicated service, she was ready  for this startling coaching question.  In previous sessions, she had articulated a vision for her life after leaving this organization, a vision that really jazzed her, even though there were some unknowns that made her more than a little anxious. 

Before planning for your succession, it can be very helpful to develop a clear personal vision of where you want to go, or grow, next.....a picture of what's in your future.  The clearer the vision for what's next, the easier it is to let go of your current work life.   Then, you can begin to imagine the organization, division, department, or volunteer project without you. 

We recommend that you identify tasks and responsibilities you have been holding on to for an assortment of reasons. 

• You like doing them
• Everyone else hates doing them
• Nobody does it better than you, or ever could for that matter
• Everyone else is overloaded too

Task by task, responsibility by responsibility,   relentlessly ask yourself, "do I really need to be doing this?Who other than me could do this?  Might this represent a professional development opportunity for some one else?"  

Identify the most likely candidate for each task, and prepare them to take over.  Preparing others to take over tasks and responsibilities involves: 

• Helping them to understand how this task fits into the big picture and why it is important
• Why you chose them
• Providing them with the tools, information and training to be successful
• Letting them take the lead while monitoring and mentoring
• Letting Go!

Repeat until all tasks and responsibilities that could or should be handled by others are appropriately delegated.  The better you become at teaching, mentoring, and coaching others, the more tasks and responsibilities you can delegate. 

After you have peeled away this collection of tasks and responsibilities that you have accumulated over a period of time, you should be down to the essentials of your true job, your most value added role.  This is tricky, because jobs, like our pets,  tend to take on the characteristics of their owners over time. 

After the peeling away process,  you are ready to analyze your own job or role, and clearly define it.  What are your key accountabilities?  What does it take to be successful?  What does the job need? What does the organization need to take it to the next level?  

When you have completed a proper analysis, you are ready to identify potential candidates, and begin an appropriate screening process. 

Preparing the way for your successor can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your career, or it can be one of the most traumatic.  It definitely helps to put a plan in place well ahead of time.  Along with that plan, it helps to view the transition as a step by step process.

Imagine what's next for you.  Imagine your organization without you. Identify some obvious tasks or responsibilities that others could/should perform. Follow the process for effective delegation and let go!