Is Your Succession Plan Malnourished?

By Dan Schneider, Partner, The Rawls Group
www.rawlsgroup.com

From as early as 1550 BC until 1750 AD, a type of malnourishment called scurvy often decimated the crews of mighty navies. At long last, a Scottish physician named James Lind discovered that Vitamin C could prevent scurvy. The link between scurvy and vitamin C is important to us because succession planning has its own form of scurvy. Sometimes it’s called complacency. Sometimes it’s called procrastination.

Complacency and procrastination also go back a long way. Biblical Old Testament prophets like Amos warned of complacency and not taking care of business. Then, like now, most people didn’t connect the dots. It seems that in the absence of an immediate and triggering event or crisis, we are likely to think about succession planning only in terms of “Someday” or “Next Year” or “Tomorrow”.

And it’s almost always a “have to”, an “ought to”, or a “should,” though in the back of our minds. Just as there was an antidote for the scurvy of olden times, there’s also an antidote for the plague that keeps us from getting actively involved in succession planning.

To be most effective, succession planning must occur on a proactive track. Here comes our version of the Vitamin C complex to the rescue. Daily doses increase your resistance to complacency and procrastination by providing the essential building blocks of proactive people:

Clarity – Ask yourself the right questions and you can begin to see clearly and open up options that may not have seemed possible before. These are questions that draw out your motivation and interests related to family harmony and business development. One of those questions might be “What, if anything, do I owe to the members of my family, business, community?

Consistency – People crave consistency and predictability. When those factors are absent, people are left at the mercy of their imagination. With a well drafted and communicated succession plan, people know what’s going to happen, and they become more effective in reaching goals.

Commitment – Talking about a succession plan communicates intention. Putting it down in writing demonstrates commitment. Take the time, invest the money, and reap the benefits of demonstrating that you are serious about continuing the business through the next generation.

Confidence – You are more than likely a confident risk taker by nature. There’s a lot at stake in any succession plan. Bolster your confidence in the decisions you’ve made by surrounding yourself with people who know what they’re doing; by setting up systems and processes that insure leadership and management continuity; and by insuring that family members have been treated equitably.