CEOs have a lot on their plates, but one important task tends to fall to the bottom of the list: Succession planning.
Who says you can’t prepare for disaster? When it’s the future of your business you should definitely have a succession plan in place for that day when tragedy may strike. But there’s a funny little quirk in most of us: We have a hard time imagining that tomorrow could usher in a life-changing event that takes us by surprise.
So, here’s an idea: The ‘Stone Soup’ approach to succession planning. Here’s what we envision: What if collegial CEOs gathered together to discuss that particular topic and other similar topics once a month?
Imagine what could be accomplished towards perfecting your succession plan, with a half dozen CEOs chiming in bits of wisdom based on their own experience as business leaders.
We all have our blind spots and when it comes to the future, most of us have a particular weakness of some kind – whether it’s impulsivity or short-sightedness, or just a very low tolerance for risk. But a succession plan should include all those elements and more. Often a business owner can craft a succession plan ahead of time that considers a variety of scenarios with a provision tailored for each possibility.
Ideally a succession plan should be in place before the owner suffers a debilitating stroke at the ‘young’ age of 45. But busy CEOs have so many other pressing concerns, that task is often low down on the list of to-dos. There’s nothing like a round-table discussion of ‘what ifs?’ to ignite that collective managerial brainpower. Consider joining us for a future discussion.