10/29/2007
Key Employee Succession Planning
by Herb Lawrence, Center Director, ASU SBDC
Most small business owners think of succession planning as how they prepare to groom someone else (usually a younger family member) to take over the business. What too many owners forget is that their own succession will hopefully only occur once, but key employee changes will occur frequently. Helping your key employees develop their own potential successors will ensure a smooth transition and minimize the loss of productivity when vacancies occur.
The key to help your supervisors groom their own successors is proper delegation and constant feedback to potential successors. This is usually done informally and the best tool is proper delegation, helping key employees identify workers who can handle more responsibility and familiarize other workers with management duties ensuring a pool of prepared workers.
Employee succession planning allows your managers to continually develop new leaders. While no one is indispensable, the absence of a key employee can cause disruptions in business. Smart business owners will ensure that all key employees are constantly grooming others to take over someday.
For more information on succession planning contact the Arkansas Small Business Development Center at asbdc.ualr.edu to find the SBDC nearest you.
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