“There is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things in any state. For the innovator has for enemies all those who derived advantages from the old order of things while those who expect to be benefited by the new institutions will be but lukewarm defenders.”
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Anytime there is a necessity of change, and things are always changing, it appears sometimes like trench warfare where those comfortable in the old order dig in and build walls of fear. Research, ideas, examples, and facts of what will help traverse the change is seen as an enemy of the old order and rationalizations of fear override the critical thinking, creativity, and innovation necessary to succeed. Remember the credit and bank debacle? While some corporations immediately ousted CEO’s that were responsible, others kept them out of fear of not knowing were to turn. You remember those kept, they flew private jets to D.C. for hearings and were confused as to the attention they were given in financial hard times, but found it perfectly fine to fly private jets when people were laid off. Well in both situations, there was a red flag that most corporations leadership succession plan was either nonexistent, or so convoluted and overridden by a false perception of ROI (I say false because most arguments were based on fear more then sound research or economic realities). There are many examples today of the necessity of the drastic change needed and the type of leadership needed to embrace that change. In fact, there is an array of surveys, research, and positive examples that have stated what is influential in succeeding, but are these being followed?
First if we look at CEO succession, what do we find? Cascio and Aquinis (2011) stated in their book entitled, Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management that only about fifty percent of companies even have a succession plan (p. 228). They gave examples of companies during the mortgage lending crisis where CEO’s were let go, but the companies were not prepared to replace them or had no internal candidates for consideration. Bill George (2007) presented us with even more examples of “succession failures” in an article he did for Bloomberg Businessweek entitled, An Embarrassment of Succession Fiascoes. From his article, he presented a question and response, “Why do so many boards wind up looking outside the company for new leadership? My view is that they spend far too little time building sound succession systems. Lacking well-tested candidates, they presume an outsider can quickly transform the company and its culture.” While it is not always a failure to hire an outsider (e.g. Alan Mulally at Ford, but it took Bill Ford being willing to admit his shortcomings and to give up power, see Wally Bock’s post, The Other Ford. it should not be done just because there isn’t any succession or leadership development plan.
There is an array of information available as research, surveys, and examples of the necessity of having an internal leadership development strategy, and what attributes will be necessary for these leaders to succeed. Many times, it includes what companies themselves believe is needed for the leader NOW and in the near future. Here are just a few examples:
- Global Leadership Forecast 2011 — Time For A Leadership Revolution by Boatman and Wellins (2011).
- Jocelyn Berard’s post on Global Canada’s report entitled, Looking to the Future
- The Center for Creative Leadership’s report by Leslie (2009) entitled, The Leadership Gap
- Emery, Sitkin, and Siang (2009) article entitled, In Challenging Times, Leadership Skills and Leadership Development Matter
- O’Connell’s (2011) presentation in Bloomberg Businessweek entitled, Twenty Best Companies for Leadership
This is just a tip of the iceberg of the multitude of information available on why it is important to develop a leadership succession plan and development plan within a company. In spite of this and even the acknowledgement on surveys by companies on what traits they need in leadership now, so many still fall short. Isn’t it time to say STOP The Fear! STOP The Insanity! Step back, and ask:
- Is fear keeping our company from making necessary changes?
- Are we denying our fears?
- If so, what can we do about?
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