Writer: Sorayuth Vathanavisuth, Ph.D.

For the past 10 years or so, succession planning is one of the action points for which Board and top executives have to focus. In reality, most of organizations usually say they already have the plan in place. As we are already aware, the devil is in the details, approach of succession planning and the way to identify and develop each individual successor are quite different among the firms.

Indication of the right successor can come in various practices. Opinion of top executives and Board’s member, who potential successors used to work with, are usually taken into account when considering high potential successors and talents. Besides the process, approach and assessment tools; to identify the potential successor; engagement from top executive particularly the CEO is critically important.

Leadership Potential Inventory

Tawil* is a cock of the walk in his professional area and also one of high potential talents. A few years ago, he has been promoted to the promising position. His current responsibility requires him to report directly to Samran* who has been also identified as potential successor of CEO (Anek*).

In order to run succession planning process, the CEO, Anek, has adopted personality and cognitive ability assessments as the data for considering the potential successor. Integrating these two reliable assessments together, he is able to know the leadership potential inventory of the person.

Personality is suitable in succession planning due to the fact that a person will not change over time. People may change mindset, beliefs, and values which lead to changing of behavior but not personality. After ones start working about a year after graduating from college, their personalities tend to be in that manner for the rest of their life. It may change a bit but not a turnaround change. Because of this reality, Anek can have a clear picture of Tawil’s behavioral growth potential.

Cognitive ability or power of the brain, in a layman term, reflects ability of a person in three dimensions which are verbal (ability to interpret, understand meaning of written material), numerical (ability to recognize and interpret numerical information) and abstract reasoning (ability to analyze and solve conceptual problems).  From integration of personality and cognitive ability results, Anek can see high degree of Tawil’s leadership potential at 67 percentile which means, from a base of 100, he has potential to be successful in his leadership role more than 67 out 100 test takers who run these assessments before him.

Reliability matters

An important issue must be addressed before further discussion is accuracy of the assessment. It is crucial to mention that “reliability”, a measure of the consistency of the tool to measure the same results on the same person at different times, of this personality assessment is 0.85 (from 1.0 index) which is considered high and reliable. Therefore, it seems to be the right decision of Anek and Samran to place Tawil as the high potential successor and is next in line after Samran.

In the past six months, Anek, the CEO, has found that Tawil cannot deliver his target as expected. This prompts him to review company’s succession planning process again. Although, every element in the process seems to be in the right manner, Anek observes that Tawil tends to be too compromised when he handles his team members. In another word, he is likely to please his subordinate instead of getting the job done. This guides Anek to find the possible root cause, why Tawil cannot achieve the target, in his personality assessment.

Big Five’s Agreeableness

According to “Big Five” Dimensions, a well-established theory, human being has five elements as a basis of psychological foundation. In this regard, Anek wonders that Tawil’s Agreeableness score, 60 percentiles, may be an issue here.

Agreeableness, one of the Big Five Dimensions, is defined as compassion, getting along with others, and willingness to compromise. According to this assessment, the Agreeableness comprises of cooperation, concern for others and diplomacy. After digging deeper into the number and recall his direct experience with Tawil, Anek concludes that the issue may stem from Tawil’s high score on concern for others, 74 percentiles, which creates problem for him, his department and organization. 

Anek can recall that, in roles where Tawil should not show empathy, his personal concern for others may be perceived as a liability. Some people might even take advantage of his kindness. In a matter of fact, Tawil did raise a concern to Anek that he is prone to emotional burnout because his poor performance causes lower financial incentives to his subordinates. After putting two and two together, he is now aware that Tawil is not the right successor, to Samran’s position, because of downside of his “concerning of others” attribute. Since Anek and Samran still value Tawil’s capability and contribution to the firm, Tawil should be relocated to proper and a more service-related position.  

The above story clearly demonstrates important of succession planning, adopting proper assessment tool, closely following up and corrective measurement if there is an issue. This is an on-going process which must be on the top list and always in the eyes of the CEO. Succession planning is not a sole responsibility of HR Department as most of executives understand. CEO is always accountable for succession planning which means it should be one of the CEO’s critical KPI (key performance indicator) to be reviewed by the Board of Directors.

* Not real name

Disclaimer: This article is written for educational purpose only.

Sorayuth Vathanavisuth, Ph.D. is a DCP 3 - Graduate Member and former facilitator of DCP’s Strategic HR section.
He can be reached at sorayuth@sealeadership.com.