July 26, 2010 Fortune Magazine. Two small little snippets on page 20 should cause alarm bells for many.
Fact 1: 39% of large company CEO’s and directors say they have zero real internal CEO candidates.
Fact 2: The average number of hours boards spend on succession planning? Two.
Do you see yourself or your company in these facts?
Ok, maybe you aren’t leading a company or vying for the C-Suite. Let’s bring this closer to home.
- Who are you grooming for leadership in your organization?
- Who are the people who would be candidates for your role?
- And how much time are you spending preparing them, supporting them and helping them grow?
These are critical questions and they should leave you thinking hard about the choices you have made, and what you need to do now.
Think about those internal candidates. If they exist, think about how you can support their growth. (We can help in a variety of ways, email us for that help)
If you don’t see those candidates, look harder and get to work.
Why is this? Is it a fear of creating somebody better than you? If so, how wrong can you be, this must be the entire mission of leadership? Making other people better than you!
I like to compare with sports, soccer, football, NBA or whatever. What is cheapest? Bying star players or creating the stars? Who will have the strongest team feeling? There is a lot of good leadership candidates in any company. If 39% of large company CEO’s and directors say they have zero real internal CEO candidates, what do they think about their internal people? Are they afraid? Do they not have trust or faith in them?
I think this is disturbing, as there is supposed to be intelligent people on the top. I figure there is a reason why they became CEO’s in the first place.
Cheers!