Succession Planning Roles and Responsibilities: Who is Responsible for What?

Succession planning is an important strategic process that has broad benefits for organizations and employees alike. It allows leaders to align their long-term goals and ensures that internal talent is prepared to step into critical roles when vacancies arise. Overall, succession planning is crucial for maintaining a strong workforce over time. However, to fully realize the benefits of a strong succession plan, it’s essential that all stakeholders have a clear, shared understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

Key Roles in Succession Planning

In this blog, SIGMA’s succession planning experts list the primary duties of four key roles in the succession planning process:

1. The Succession Advisory Team (SAT)
2. Senior management
3. Critical role incumbents
4. Succession candidates

Each of these parties has an important role to play in developing and implementing strong succession plans. For the succession planning process to be effective, buy-in is required at every level. As such, the first step in succession planning should be to be to create relevant project teams, share roles and responsibilities, and ensure commitment to the process. The responsibilities listed below can be used to structure initial meetings or provide documentation that outlines the role each stakeholder will be asked to play.

1. Succession Advisory Team (SAT) Responsibilities

Every succession planning process needs a dedicated champion, a person or team responsible for driving progress, achieving goals, ensuring clear communication and support for all involved. To fulfill this role effectively, we recommend forming a Succession Advisory Team (SAT). SATs are tasked with designing, implementing, and managing an organization’s succession plan. For more information on SATs, read our blog, How to Create a Succession Advisory Team. Members of the organization’s Succession Advisory Team (SAT) have key succession planning responsibilities that include:

Gaining Buy-In for Succession Planning

• Gain buy-in from senior leaders and other important stakeholders, such as the board of directors, for pursuing succession planning efforts.
• Work with senior management to ensure alignment with the organization’s strategic goals.

Developing and Maintaining a Succession Planning Process

• Design a structured process for succession planning or liaise with external consultants like SIGMA to adopt a proven succession planning process. 

Identifying Key Positions and Skills

• Work with senior management to identify critical roles in the organization.
• Work with critical role incumbents and other subject matter experts to list competencies required for success in each critical role.
• Use the information gathered above to build success profiles for each critical role.

Facilitating Talent Assessment

• Facilitate discussions about existing and required talent.
• Select and administer scientifically validated talent assessments to create candidate profiles for each succession candidate.

Providing Training and Development Programs

• Equip leaders to act as internal coaches for succession candidates.
• Ensure ongoing talent development offerings are provided to employees, such as group trainings and training budgets.
• Oversee the development and execution of training programs to prepare employees for future roles.

Monitoring and Reviewing Progress

• Create a system for tracking succession planning progress.
• Remind leaders and succession candidates to regularly review progress on individual development plans.
• Consolidate information from all leaders and succession candidates to keep track of overall succession planning progress.
• Update the succession plan as needed.

Creating Documentation and Reports

• Maintain accurate records of succession planning activities, decisions, and progress.
• Regularly review and communicate succession planning progress to important stakeholders within the organization.
  

Overall, the SAT carries much of the responsibility of planning and executing succession planning efforts. In essence, they are the ambassadors of the process. However, the SAT cannot carry out all steps in the succession planning process on its own. Another key group of individuals that has some responsibility in the succession planning process is senior management.

2. Senior Management Responsibilities

Unlike the SAT, senior management may not be as involved in the day-to-day execution of succession planning. Their main role is to ensure that succession planning efforts are endorsed throughout the organization and aligned with strategic goals. For members of an organization’s senior management team, succession planning responsibilities may include:

Providing Strategic Vision and Direction

• Share the organization’s strategic goals and how succession planning can align with these objectives.
• Provide input on which competencies are needed for future leadership roles.

Allocating Resources

• Ensure adequate resources, such as time, budget, and support, are allocated to succession planning and employee development programs.

Promoting a Succession Planning Culture

• Foster an organizational culture that values and supports succession planning.
• Communicate the importance of succession planning throughout the organization; ensure the process is perceived to be fair and transparent by relevant stakeholders.

Nominating Succession Candidates

• Use performance evaluations and talent reviews to nominate potential succession candidates.
  
  

Both the SAT and senior management play crucial roles in ensuring the effectiveness of a succession planning process. The SAT typically focuses on facilitating the planning process and implementing the plan, while senior management provides strategic direction and oversight. Apart from senior management, other leaders in the organization who are a part of the succession planning process include the incumbents of critical roles.

3. Critical Role Incumbent Responsibilities

Critical roles are key positions that are prioritized for succession planning. As such, the incumbents of critical roles play an important role in the succession planning process. The primary responsibility of these individuals is to act as subject matter experts (SMEs), understanding the requirements of their role and assisting in the identification and development of potential succession candidates. During this process, incumbents in critical roles are responsible for:

Supporting the Development of Success Profiles

• Collaborate with the SAT to build success profiles for critical roles; as incumbents, these individuals act as SMEs who can validate and supply additional information about what is required for success in each critical role.

Nominating Candidates and Building a Succession Bench

• Consider the internal talent pool for their role and ensure that potential successors are appropriately mapped to critical roles.
• Build a succession bench for their critical role based on succession candidates currently available.

Mentoring and Coaching

• Actively mentor and coach succession candidates.
• Offer additional development opportunities, such as strength assignments and delegation of tasks.
• Support succession candidates to find and participate in development opportunities.

Reviewing and Updating Succession Plans

• Regularly review and update succession candidate development plans as needed.
• Communicate candidates’ progress to the SAT, who will consolidate information from all leaders to monitor overall succession planning progress.

Last but certainly not least, succession candidates, or potential successors, also have important responsibilities in the succession planning process.

4. Succession Candidate Responsibilities

Succession candidates will first and foremost need to opt in to the succession planning process. Individuals should only be developed for critical roles after they have expressed a clear interest in stepping into those positions. Once an individual commits to the succession planning process, they assume a distinct set of responsibilities. The following outlines what may be expected from a succession candidate during the development process:

Communicate Career Goals

• Clearly communicate career aspirations and goals.
• Discuss their readiness and willingness to assume new leadership roles when opportunities arise.
• Be honest if a critical role is not one that they would be interested in, such as a management position or a position that requires a significant amount of travel.

Participate in Talent Development Opportunities

• Complete assessments to understand personal strengths and development opportunities.
• Choose development goals that support their skill development and career ambitions.
• Create personal development plans.
• Pursue resources, support, and opportunities for growth.
• Demonstrate commitment by keeping abreast of talent development plans.
• Share progress with leaders over time.

Seek Feedback and Guidance

• Regularly seek feedback from mentors, managers, and peers to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
• Actively participate in coaching and mentoring sessions.

Strive for Excellence

• Consistently perform at a high level in their current role to demonstrate readiness for increased responsibilities.

Understand Organizational Goals

• Stay informed about the organization’s strategic goals and how their current and target role contribute to achieving these goals.
• Align personal development with the organization’s objectives.
• Stay updated on industry trends and best practices relevant to the target role. This is particularly important for individuals who want to move into senior management or other strategic roles.

Succession candidates play a crucial role in their own talent development and in the overall succession planning process. Their proactive engagement significantly influences their chances of successfully stepping into future leadership positions and contributes to the development of the overall caliber of the organization’s internal talent pool.

All Stakeholders

In addition to role-specific responsibilities, all stakeholders involved in a succession planning process should make an effort to:

• Communicate with others about succession planning decisions and progress.
• Ask questions to ensure all parties are on the same page.
• Dedicate time, energy, and effort towards succession activities.

Together, these efforts ensure that succession planning remains a priority, and the process remains transparent, supported, and effective.

Looking for More?

If you are interested in learning more about SIGMA’s succession planning process, download our Succession Planning Guide. This comprehensive resource includes information about the nature and importance of succession planning, our six-step process, and practical tools and templates you can use to begin building your own succession plan today.