Building Your Executive Team: A Short Course in Leadership Development and Succession Planning

What is leadership in today's world, how do we develop it, and what does it take to make a difference? John Kotter in his bookLeading Change, states that leadership “..defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.” Dr. William Schneider, author of The Reengineering Alternative and a TAP Resource business partner, defines leadership as “Creating a vision and direction for the organization and mobilizing people to accomplish them.”Comprehensive leadership development and succession planning involves aligning leadership with the organization for which the leader is responsible. For that reason, we recommend a three step process for effective succession planning:a competency mapping process covering the effected positions,a comprehensive and individualized leadership development process andsuccession plan development and implementation.The development of a sound leadership development and succession planning process is a utility's straightest path across the “bridge to the future” and, in fact, taking this approach is quite possibly an organization's management's best tool in ensuring long-term measurable success for the organization, its customers, and its employees.