You can almost hear the mad scramble for assistance as organizations draw closer to the bewitching hour of when key people walk out the door about to enjoy years of retirement bliss. Most organizations and their leaders choose to not recognize that this is a problem. They continue to ignore stating that they have other more pressing things to deal with. Eventually the problem will get away on them and they may well be forced to close the doors to a business they have invested their life in. With the closing of the doors goes the opportunity to have left a legacy in the community.

This challenge in various degrees impacts pretty all organizations. Some are in hurry up offense trying to pull together a plan thinking that once they have named successors that they are done. Such is not the case. There is more work to come. I think quite often of the family owned business where the owner of the company hasn’t taken the time to sit down with his family to see who is interested in continuing the family legacy. What work if any has been done up to that point to prepare any one of the family members to step into those very big shoes that will need to be filled.

No matter the approach, whether it is the family owned business or the larger organization that has decided to embark on the succession planning journey there are things that you need to consider. Have you thought how you are going to transfer the business knowledge from yourself to your successor? Have you developed clear time lines and milestones for the transfer of that knowledge? Do you have contingency plans in place in case that does not take place according to plan? What steps have you put into place for the soft skills (which will include emotional intelligence)? Far too often I have seen very technically or business savvy people crash and burn because they did not have the soft skills to be able to work with others. In some cases they had to adopt management by fear and intimidation in order to get the job done.

When I look at the leadership talent shortage that we have and I see all the challenges that we are facing with succession planning but more importantly succession development I can’t voice my concerns loud enough. We have in essence done this to our selves, but it can be fixed. Organizations no matter their size need to proactively begin to move forward with their succession planning process and ensure that the development of successors is part of that plan. You need to ensure that you leverage the “power of mentoring” for both the technical (hard skills) and the soft skills. You will need to have the tough conversation with your family if this is a family owned business – one conversation that you may wish to have a facilitator for. Our emotions do have a way of getting in the way of a meaningful conversation.

The longer we wait to address the problem the tougher it will become to resolve it in the time frame that you would like. Don’t be afraid to reach outside of the organization for help. There are a lot of organizations that would be more than willing to assist you. Ensure that part of the solution though leverages the “power of mentoring”. After all, “can you afford not to?”