What should a successor development plan include?

A successor development plan should include eight things: the role the successor is preparing for, the timeline, an honest baseline of where they stand today, the specific areas to develop, the real responsibilities they will take on and when, the support around them, the milestones that show progress, and a rhythm for reviewing the plan. It should be short, agreed by founder and successor, and tied to dates.

Many families have a succession plan that covers ownership and governance but no written plan for developing the person. The result is preparation that happens by accident, if at all.

How is it different from a succession plan?

A succession plan decides who will own and control the business, when, and under what structure. A successor development plan decides how the chosen person will be ready to lead by then. The first is mostly legal and financial. The second is about experience, judgement and authority. How to prepare your son or daughter to take over the family business covers why the two are separate jobs.

The development plan assumes one thing is already settled: the successor has decided they want the role. If that is still open, the plan should wait.

1. The role

Start with a short description of the role the successor is preparing for, in concrete terms.

The title and scope: CEO, managing director, head of a division, chair.
Who will report to them, and to whom they will report.
The decisions they will own once the handover is complete.
The rooms they will lead: the board, the senior team, company-wide meetings, family meetings, key external relationships.

A vague target (“take over one day”) produces vague preparation.

2. The timeline

Write down the expected date of the handover, even if it may move, and the main stages before it. A staged handover with three or four steps is easier to plan for than a single change of title.

Include the fixed events that will matter: board meetings, the annual company gathering, budget season, major contract renewals, the family meeting. These become the practice ground for the plan. How long does it take to prepare a successor? helps set a realistic timeline.

3. An honest baseline

Record where the successor stands today, across the areas that matter for the role. Useful sources include:

The successor’s own view of their strengths and the situations where they feel least credible.
The founder’s view, stated plainly.
Confidential input from others: senior executives, a board member, sometimes a sibling. The useful question underneath is “what would make you follow them?”.
Observation: how they actually run a meeting, present to the board or handle a hard question. A recording is more reliable than memory.

The baseline is the reference point for every later review. Without it, progress is a matter of opinion.

4. Development areas

Group what needs to develop into a small number of areas, and for each, describe what “ready” looks like. A common structure:

Business knowledge: finance, operations, customers, the industry, how this company makes money.
Experience: having run something, owned results and lived with the consequences.
Relationships: with the board, the senior team, the bank, key customers and partners, especially those loyal to the founder.
Authority in the room: leading with a clear position, answering under pressure, speaking in their own name.
The family: working with the founder, siblings and the wider family, including how disagreements are handled.

Three to five priorities are enough. A plan with twenty development goals is a list, not a plan.

5. Real responsibilities, with dates

This is the most important section and the one most often missing. Development happens through responsibility, not observation.

For each stage of the timeline, list what the successor will own:

Decisions: which ones, at what level, from what date.
Results: a unit, a project, a budget or a market they answer for.
Meetings: which ones they chair or lead, and when the founder stops attending.
Relationships: which external relationships move to them, and how they are introduced.

If the founder still makes every final call, the successor is shadowing, not developing.

6. Support

Describe who helps, and with what. Typical elements:

Mentoring from the founder, a board member or another family business leader, for context and judgement.
Coaching for the skills that only change through practice, such as how the successor leads the board or the senior team.
Education, such as an executive program or specific courses, where there are real gaps in business knowledge.
Outside experience, if the successor has not yet worked elsewhere.

For each, note who provides it, what it focuses on and how confidentiality works.

7. Milestones

Define a few observable signs of progress, linked to the timeline. Good milestones describe what other people see, not what the successor knows. For example:

The successor leads the board update without the founder adding to it.
Senior executives bring decisions in the successor’s area to the successor, not the founder.
A key customer or the bank calls the successor first.
The successor and founder disagree in private and present one position in public.

How to tell if your successor is ready to lead describes more signs worth tracking.

8. Reviews

Agree how often the plan is reviewed, usually every quarter, and who is present. The founder and the successor should both attend. A board member or advisor can add an outside view.

Each review asks three questions: what has changed since the baseline, which responsibilities have moved as planned, and what needs adjusting. Re-recording the baseline scenarios at intervals makes change visible.

Where the Handover Charter fits

As the handover approaches, the development plan should lead to a written agreement between founder and successor about how leadership actually passes: what changes and when, what stays with the founder, how they disagree, the founder’s new role and the announcement. The Handover Charter sets out that one-page agreement.

A simple outline

The role
The timeline and key events
The baseline
Three to five development priorities
Responsibilities by stage, with dates
Support: mentoring, coaching, education
Milestones others can observe
Review rhythm

In short

A successor development plan prepares the person, where a succession plan arranges the structure.
It covers the role, the timeline, an honest baseline, development areas, real responsibilities, support, milestones and reviews.
Responsibilities with dates matter more than any course or program.
Measure progress by what others observe, review quarterly, and end with a written agreement on the handover.

The Second Chair™ diagnostic produces the baseline and the leadership calendar that much of this plan depends on. The method shows how.