Successor development plan

A succession plan decides who will lead and own the business, and when. A successor development plan decides how that person will be ready by then. The first is mostly legal and financial. The second is about experience, judgement and authority in the rooms the successor will lead.

A successor development plan usually includes:

• The role: the title, scope, decisions and rooms the successor is preparing for.
• The timeline: the expected handover date and the main stages before it.
• An honest baseline: where the successor stands today, often drawn from their own view, the founder’s view, stakeholder interviews or 360-degree feedback, and direct observation.
• Development priorities: three to five areas, each with a description of what “ready” looks like.
• Real responsibilities with dates: the decisions, results, meetings and relationships the successor will own, and when.
• Support: mentoring, executive coaching, education or outside experience.
• Milestones and reviews: how progress will be judged, and how often the plan is revisited.

The common gap

Many families have a detailed succession plan and no written development plan at all. Development then happens by accident: the successor is given a title, sits in meetings and is expected to absorb leadership by watching. Responsibility, not observation, is what builds readiness.

In the Second Chair™ program

In Second Chair™, the private diagnostic produces a similar foundation: confidential stakeholder interviews, a recorded baseline, the three patterns costing the successor the most authority, and a leadership calendar of the high-stakes events in the next six months, which becomes the practice plan.

What should a successor development plan include? sets out each section in detail, and how long does it take to prepare a successor? helps set the timeline.