Succession Planning - Initiating the Process

Description: Join us as we unravel the key components of a successful succession plan, offering insights into:

• Identifying and developing internal talent
• Fostering a culture of continuous learning
• Mitigating potential risks

Learn how to navigate leadership transitions and ensure the long-term success of your organization through effective succession planning strategies.

Resources:

The Business Case for Succession Planning 

Succession Planning Program 

Succession Planning Guide 

Succession Planning Tracking Chart 

MRA Membership 

About MRA 

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Dana Vogelmeier 

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Dana Vogelmeier 

Host Bio - Sophie Boler 

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler 

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:05 - 00:00:45:18
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to this episode of 30 Minute THRIVE. So today we're going to be talking about succession planning, and I found this stat a bit shocking. So every day in the US, 10,000 people turn 65. And to add to that stat, the average retirement age in the United States is 61, according to a 2022 Gallup survey.

00:00:45:20 - 00:01:07:17
Unknown
So those are all pretty significant numbers in the world of work. So the impact is huge. Today, like I said, it only makes sense now that we're here to talk about succession planning. So succession planning is a business necessity, and it's as critical to strategic planning for business as a whole. But succession planning is not just about retirees.

00:01:07:17 - 00:01:36:22
Unknown
And it's not just for CEOs in leadership. It's also a part of employee development. So it's a really great topic of discussion for us today. And I'm 30 minutes Right podcast. And a lot of you a lot of our listeners have actually requested this topic. So we will finally get into it and we're excited. And I'm here with Dana Vogelmeier, MRA senior instructional designer who's worked with our members to help develop and implement succession planning programs.

00:01:36:24 - 00:02:00:07
Unknown
So, Dana, I'm super excited to have you on today and thanks for coming coming on the podcast as the expert and really covering how to create that successful succession planning. Thank you so being happy to be here. So, well, let's just start out by defining what business succession planning really is and why it's essential for business owners. Okay, sure.

00:02:00:09 - 00:02:22:21
Unknown
So succession planning, as you mentioned earlier, it is it's critical and it is something that sometimes gets kind of pushed to the background because it feels like it's not important work. But if you think about the sustainability for an organization, it is really one of those critical things we should do. And succession planning is it's a process of talent identification.

00:02:22:23 - 00:02:52:02
Unknown
So we dedicate time to looking at all of the people in our organization and who has what kinds of skills, what kind of potential or performance do they have, what do they need, and then get them what they need. We'll talk about that too. But it's really just first about identifying what that what the talent is in the organization, what it is not is a process to go through for determining who you're going to hire for a role.

00:02:52:02 - 00:03:20:12
Unknown
That's that's different. This is about putting documentation together and determining what kind of talent and skills you have in the organization and then what people need and then getting them the development that they need. Absolutely. You highlighted a lot of good points there, and I feel like something to emphasize is to not put this planning on the back burner because I feel like we've heard that a lot with challenges on succession planning is, I didn't think of it till now or we're not ready.

00:03:20:12 - 00:03:52:06
Unknown
So I'm glad today we can help with those steps and kind of that preplanning process. So kind of the next step then, what are some key components of a successful business succession plan? Tongue twister. Yeah, it is a tongue twister. Yeah. So some of the kind of key components to think about are identifying critical roles that you might have in the organization where if for some reason there was a gap there and someone had left, the organization like that would really create a problem.

00:03:52:06 - 00:04:11:00
Unknown
So what kinds of critical roles do you have? What kind of niche roles do you have where it's hard to find a good pool of candidates with that skill set might be super unique. You know, you want to identify that. You also want to, as one of these key components, think about business challenges that you either currently have or are coming.

00:04:11:02 - 00:04:30:24
Unknown
So an example might be you currently have this issue of we're in the middle of expanding. Maybe we only do operations on the East Coast. We're going to expand to the West Coast or only in the U.S. We're going to go global, you know, like so that might be something you're in the middle of, but also looking out and that could be part of your strategic planning process.

00:04:30:24 - 00:04:55:00
Unknown
And you learned some information there. So bring that information in to your succession planning and think about there's a new law that's going into effect that might impact your industry. There could be a new competitor that is entering the marketplace. There could be some kind of restrictions or maybe you experience some supply chain issues or one of your big suppliers is going out of business.

00:04:55:02 - 00:05:25:08
Unknown
You know, those business challenges that are going to impact you, how does that impact your succession planning and some of the things? Well, some of the things may not, but do you have people with that knowledge about how this is going to impact the organization? So you're really kind of looking at the the areas where you might have some deficiencies in knowledge and skills, talent and how how we can maybe make a plan to start addressing that.

00:05:25:10 - 00:05:50:04
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. And you talk about plan and process. So follow up question to that is what would a typical process really look like? Yeah, so this is a good question. And what I will say about like the process to think about, I'm going to give you a good example of a process that I've used in the past, but the first thing to think about in your for any company and your own process is what makes sense for you.

00:05:50:04 - 00:06:12:09
Unknown
And if you haven't done it at all before, you want to start small and just maybe pilot with a role or a department and then kind of build off of that. But one the process or approach that I have used in the past is called the climb up approach. And it starts with and within the process you establish your meetings.

00:06:12:11 - 00:06:37:05
Unknown
But the first meetings are the first line supervisors meeting and someone's going to facilitate this conversation and they're going to talk about the high performing people on their teams and the high performing the high potentials and the high performers on their teams. And so who are those people? And somewhere we want to have like a database. So that we can document everything so that information goes in there.

00:06:37:07 - 00:07:11:10
Unknown
Then the next step is to have the second line leaders meet. They're going to talk about the first line leaders and who is a high potential, who's high performing, what people need, what do they do? Well, unique skill sets, but they're also going to have knowledge of the people that were talked about in the first round, because those might be people that fill backfill roles of first line supervisors, but also those second line leaders and every leader above that need to have some knowledge of these other folks that are in the database and what kind of unique skills or talents do they bring.

00:07:11:10 - 00:07:41:21
Unknown
Maybe they worked for a competitor in the past or maybe they worked for an organization that was like competitor adjacent, and they might have a different perspective that would be beneficial in a particular project or something like that. So everybody needs to be know kind of what's in there, especially with unique skills and experiences. So your your second line leaders may talk about first they see what who the first line leaders talked about and then go up to the third line or the executive team, depending on what your particular structure looks like and you do the same process over.

00:07:41:21 - 00:08:05:15
Unknown
But it's beneficial that everyone now have at that higher level look and see in the database who has what. So you go through your that's your climb up approach and you have all of your meetings now you have your data so you can work with that, but also something to think about in the process is your cadence of meetings and if you always have them in certain months.

00:08:05:17 - 00:08:30:19
Unknown
So people just know, as I need to be ready for that, like it's January and June or whatever, like do I need to be ready for that or do I need to be? And so I get my planning done and then thinking about the accountability piece and how you're going to how you as the executive leadership or whoever is kind of owning the process oftentimes is down through h.r.

00:08:30:21 - 00:09:00:19
Unknown
But how is that accountability going to happen and explaining exactly the process of what needs to happen there. But you know, one thing that i will just ask people to think about is if you're in a leadership role and you have this accountability or this succession planning meeting and you're supposed to do the work and you come to the meeting and say, so busy, my department, you know, this or that, but your people are missing out then.

00:09:00:21 - 00:09:22:14
Unknown
And how would you imagine those employees of that person who didn't do the work? And now no one knows that they have a unique set of skills, that they have an interest in going to another area or any of that. And so they may miss out. And as a leader, you would never want your people to miss out on a future opportunity, especially if they were the best candidate.

00:09:22:16 - 00:09:47:24
Unknown
So you have to do the work and have all of that information stored somewhere so that we have the knowledge. You know, it's like, garbage in, garbage out kind of thing. We had good data in there, so we can work from that. But you definitely want to dedicate time to doing the work. Yeah, and I feel like what you just described there is probably a common challenge for many organizations and just getting started in the accountability piece, that invention.

00:09:48:01 - 00:10:18:06
Unknown
So it's a perfect weekend or next question of what are some other common challenges that business owners face when it comes to the succession planning? Yeah, that's a great point because time is for sure one of the I would say one of the biggest issues is just getting started and kind of knowing where to start. And you have to just figure it, figure it out along the way if you've never done it, or if you don't have somebody who has done it somewhere helping you, but, you know, start small and then you can build on that.

00:10:18:08 - 00:10:41:22
Unknown
But getting started is one of the biggest challenges. And then the second thing is ensuring accountability and dedicating it at the time and working the plan because it doesn't stop after you've had the meeting. Now you have all that data from each of those meetings. You still have work to do after that. So it's working the plan. So Dana, you mentioned that a common challenge is really just starting the whole process.

00:10:41:22 - 00:11:00:20
Unknown
So where would you say a good place to start is? Yeah, and it could be like many things both feel kind of daunting sometimes, especially if you've never done it before. And it's like, where do we even begin? And and I would say get the right people in the room to have some discussion around why are we going through this?

00:11:01:00 - 00:11:21:22
Unknown
What's driving the need for doing succession planning? And it really is about preparedness and kind of being ready when something changes, getting ready so you're not caught off guard when now all of a sudden, we have to hire three new leaders. And who would they be? You might have some great people in there, but you can use the time to get people developed.

00:11:21:22 - 00:11:48:20
Unknown
So, you know, why are we doing this? What is it that we hope to get out of this? You know, answering that question now, everybody's on the same page. You've got some foundation set, then you can start looking. And I'm going to just say there's a metaphorical board here, you know, in the air. But put on the board and a like an employee journey map or a leader journey map, and it might look something like picture sort of a road map.

00:11:48:20 - 00:12:12:04
Unknown
How do we get from here to there? So for an employee, there may be a number of different career paths that they take. And I'll just use an example from one of my old experiences in an organization I worked for in the past. I was in leadership in a call center. We had customer service reps and they might become a coach, which is not a leadership role, but it's kind of a step up.

00:12:12:06 - 00:12:33:14
Unknown
They might become a trainer again, not a leadership role, but it's a step up. But they also then might go to first line supervisor and it could go those three things, but it could go right from customer service representative to supervisor, depending on the individual. No, there's never like it has to be this kind of path. I'll take that back.

00:12:33:16 - 00:12:55:19
Unknown
I won't say never, but in in generally speaking, people might take different paths to get where they're going. So you have this employee journey and in that journey map, you know what might be some skills that they like as a trainer, they're going to get great presents and skills experience, thinking on your feet, but also some planning for the class and things like that.

00:12:55:19 - 00:13:23:17
Unknown
And as a coach, they're going to get some experience coaching other employees, which is essential for leaders. So you could get some development along the way. Then when you think about the leader map in in my old experience, I'm going to use another example for later maps. We did things like you might have a first line supervisor who's only ever worked kind of in this area and we want to get them some experience in another part of the organization.

00:13:23:19 - 00:13:45:16
Unknown
They might lateral over into an analyst role and so they're not supervising people now, but they're learning some of the business problems and they're working on cross-functional teams. So they're getting a whole new set of experiences that help them learn more about the company. And especially if you're in a large organization, it can give them some different experiences.

00:13:45:18 - 00:14:03:05
Unknown
Then they might go to a second line manager or they might go to a manager of analyst or something different. But you could also go from first line supervisor to second line manager or something like that. But you just need to think about what are the needs and who has a unique set of skills and an interest in a particular role.

00:14:03:07 - 00:14:21:22
Unknown
So kind of figuring all of that out and you can start with your why statement, then go to your journey maps and that will help you once you do those individual development plans ultimately. So we've done the why now, we've done our journey maps and we've had some discussion. Then we had our meetings and we built all that data in our database.

00:14:21:24 - 00:14:49:21
Unknown
You can see what people need individually, but as a leader now, it's my responsibility for my people to get them what they need. So so there's kind of that leg, if you will, but then you'll have people in the database who have common learning needs, development needs. So for example, maybe they've never done any type of coaching or performance management or employment law.

00:14:49:23 - 00:15:11:18
Unknown
So if there's 20 people in the database that need that now, you can send people into a comment class and that could be something like RPA classes or it could be something you do on site. There also might be some some kind of really easy things to get off the ground. If you give everybody a link to a TED talk and say, watch content between now and 30 days, we're going to have a meeting and we're gonna talk about it.

00:15:11:20 - 00:15:31:04
Unknown
That's great development for people to come to the meeting and hear what other people's perspectives were and share their perspectives. So get some experience with all of that and collaborating on a project. Or it could be any number of things that you could do that could be quick hits within just within the company. You could do like a book club.

00:15:31:06 - 00:15:50:02
Unknown
But then there are other things that might be bigger, like a plex or a roundtable or going to a class on a law or something like that. But, you know, use that data to help you make your plans and do your the execution of the plan. No, absolutely. Those are great examples. I'm glad that you brought those up.

00:15:50:02 - 00:16:13:14
Unknown
And I loved hearing about your success in your past roles, too, and kind of just sharing your real life, your real life stories. So we talked about gaining new skills and some of that includes technology skills too. So I guess my question here is how do you use data then specifically to assist in succession planning in appraisals? Yeah.

00:16:13:16 - 00:16:50:23
Unknown
So I'm assuming that everybody, you know, the new hires are going in and putting their information into whatever your h.r. Software is about. However that process looks, that could be just through h.r. Maybe putting that information in, but again, garbage in, garbage out. So the data has to be in there, but there are usually your h.r. System has an element of, like, ways to search so you could search for, like, degrees in accounting, or you could search for people who have a certain certification or speak multiple languages.

00:16:51:00 - 00:17:16:06
Unknown
You could also use that information in your database to search for what's the age range as you kind of opened up with 10,000 people are retiring every day. So what is that age range? How many people are in that group and in what roles? And is it that one critical role or there's only one person with that institutional knowledge and you don't want to ask people like, Hey, I'm turning 65 or whatever, You don't want to ask that.

00:17:16:08 - 00:17:36:21
Unknown
You're just looking at the data and taking that to your meeting and saying, This is what the data is telling us. This is these are things that could happen and we should be prepared for these things. So use the reports and the information that you already have in there. If it's possible you might want to automate with some succession planning software.

00:17:36:23 - 00:17:53:00
Unknown
There are some great programs out there that make it so easy, very intuitive, user friendly programs. So again, you can put the information in and it can you can even set alerts and it will tell you like date of the meeting is next month and you need to be prepared to talk about your team members, that kind of thing.

00:17:53:00 - 00:18:19:01
Unknown
But you can also kind of move people from ready now, or maybe they're ready with development in the next 12 months or maybe ready with development 1 to 3 years or something like that, so you can set it up and whatever makes sense in your organization. But then, you know, educating everybody on what what all those things mean, ready now what does that mean?

00:18:19:03 - 00:18:49:11
Unknown
So if there's an opening and your names on the list, she's ready now. So we've got 35 people who are ready now for this first line supervisor job and great place to be if you've got a big pool like that. So you can use that data to kind of age you and in this process. Yeah, I'm glad that you brought up automation and automating the process a little bit more because I'm sure a few people are a little overwhelmed with the whole succession planning process.

00:18:49:11 - 00:19:22:06
Unknown
So at least now that there are tools to help you with the process, that's another one. Yeah. So we talked about in the beginning that planning isn't just for CEOs and leadership for retirees. So are there specific roles to priority prioritize or are there high risk roles that need more attention than other roles? Yes, and I would say think about three in particular.

00:19:22:08 - 00:19:42:10
Unknown
So one is if you have a particular role where only one person does it, and especially if one person has done it for years and they have all that institutional knowledge and you don't want to lose that and it's easy to just, you know, so and so it's always done and they've always been there, but at some point they're not going to be there.

00:19:42:12 - 00:19:58:22
Unknown
So what are what are the plans in place so that you don't have an issue when that person does leave? So you're planning for. That's why succession planning is so essential for organizations You want to be prepared for when these things happen that you're not caught off guard going, my gosh, what are we going to do now?

00:19:58:24 - 00:20:22:16
Unknown
And somebody could hit the lottery, right? And they're gone. So so that's the first one. And then the second one to think about is any of those niche roles, unique skills. There's not a big candidate pool. It's hard to hire. Think about like what are the competitors doing, What are they paying? Are they doing anything like signing bonuses or some things to attract people?

00:20:22:18 - 00:20:49:18
Unknown
And are those things that you need to consider? Maybe you've never done it in the past, but things have changed and it might be that now you need to change to accommodate that pool. So that you can attract the best talent. And then the third thing to think about really are your growth plans. So if you are going to expand, I mentioned going global or something like what are what are the needs there?

00:20:49:20 - 00:21:18:15
Unknown
If you're even just from a growth perspective, maybe it's not even going global or anything like that, but you're one of your strategic goals might be we're going to increase sales by 20%. Well, as everything increases. So do oftentimes the number of employees. So you might need to hire multiple leaders next year. Do you have anyone in the pipeline that's going to be a good leader in the meantime, if you know that's going to happen, if that's the plan?

00:21:18:15 - 00:21:42:01
Unknown
In the meantime, can you work on getting people prepared so you have all that great information from your meetings in the database and you see who might be the next first line leaders, particularly your people that have some potential and have been performing. So let's say there's 20 people in there. You could take 20 people and send them through some kind of a development class to get them prepared.

00:21:42:03 - 00:22:04:14
Unknown
And then you have a good candidate pool to choose from when you have that growth that you've been expecting. So those are kind of the three areas that I would, I would say to consider. Yeah, absolutely. We talked a lot on emerging leaders here on the podcast. So again, that's a great group of people to kind of get roped into this discussion to Absolutely.

00:22:04:16 - 00:22:30:19
Unknown
And we've also mentioned kind of emphasize the point that succession planning is not for one specific type of role or not for just leadership roles. And with so many baby boomer boomers, many of them may be in leadership roles leaving the workforce, there is a greater emphasis on the younger generation needing to fill in these leadership roles. So let's talk for a little bit about succession planning for these younger generations.

00:22:30:21 - 00:23:04:00
Unknown
Maybe they haven't been in the workforce very long and they don't really have a ton of experience or the leadership skills. So do you have any recommendations for developing this process? A little earlier on? Yeah, I would say, you know, a couple of things to think about when looking at sort of that, I'm going to use your phrase about next generation of leaders, because consider, especially for people who've been in the workforce for a long time, you know, about the evolution of the workforce itself.

00:23:04:02 - 00:23:37:17
Unknown
And currently there are the workforce is really looking for development and opportunities and not just, you know, getting hired to work in this one job forever, but it's the the workforce, you know, the people that you hope to retain that can see that they're you care about their development. You the leader care about their development and that there is going to be future opportunity, then that's a little more attractive to that that part of the workforce.

00:23:37:19 - 00:23:54:15
Unknown
The other thing about that part of the workforce, a lot of times you have people who they want to know their leader and they want their leader to know them as a whole person. There used to be an old adage back in the day that, you know, check your bags, your baggage at the door when you come to work.

00:23:54:15 - 00:24:14:19
Unknown
It's work time. But there really has been an evolution in the workforce about the whole person. You're leading the whole person and you can't often as as a human, we can't. There are certain things we just can't leave at home and things that might be hindering our ability to focus or whatever it might be. But, you know, that's attractive to help retain some of the workforce.

00:24:14:19 - 00:24:38:04
Unknown
So you're thinking about the next generation of employees. What's next? What is going to be the next part of the evolution? You may as an organization have a diversity goal and you might want to focus on that. You might also have new tech knowledge that's going to be coming into your work world, and you'll need people who understand that technology know how to do whatever it is.

00:24:38:06 - 00:25:01:06
Unknown
But you also could be just like in a growth mode. And so all of a sudden now you find it beneficial that you need to have a project manager on staff that could be part of your next generation. Maybe we've never had that before, but with all the change that we're going through and, you know, we're going to add this madness and that it might be beneficial to have somebody with that kind of a skill set to manage projects as they go through.

00:25:01:08 - 00:25:22:18
Unknown
So you just kind of have to think about what are those skills, what are some changes coming? There might be get lost, but you're looking at your next generation of hires and your next generation of leaders and what are they going to need to. Again, it's all part of the process going into leadership skills, digging in there a little bit more.

00:25:22:20 - 00:25:45:06
Unknown
How do you exactly know what is needed or how do you help develop those successful leadership skills specifically? Yeah, so a lot of that is really through observation, you know, so for example, if I am a leader and I have, you know, ten people on my team and I've worked with them, I've got some experiences and I can assess from my perspective.

00:25:45:06 - 00:26:24:10
Unknown
So so my observations are going to play a huge role in that, which back to what we said earlier about if the leader isn't going to the meetings and talking about so-and-so skills and abilities, sometimes they missed out. The other thing now can be through like cross-functional teams or cross-functional projects committees. So for example, if I am a sponsor of a new project and I have people from ten different departments that are on my project team, so I can see that person's work product, if you will, because they come to the meetings, are they prepared?

00:26:24:10 - 00:26:50:20
Unknown
Do they meet their deadlines? Do they work well with others? Just all those things. And then I can speak to that too. So their first their manager can speak to their their performance. I can speak to their performance. So there are some other examples. And in that too, I might have a different perspective because I might say they were great at these five things and you know, what they could benefit from is learning more about this other part of the organization, and that's a complement to their work.

00:26:50:22 - 00:27:12:22
Unknown
And if they understood more of the ins and outs over there, I think that it can help them understand kind of what levers to pull or when things happen, how that's going to impact another department, just kind of seeing the organization more holistically or that organization more as the system that it is. And that can really help when it comes to things like problem solving or cross training or anything like that.

00:27:12:24 - 00:27:39:07
Unknown
You know, really a lot of that is, again, through observation. But then, you know, you also think about what they need next and how do you kind of meet those needs. A lot of that is through the development plans and things. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like that's been a common trend of what we've also talked about this year is that cross training and the leadership development opportunities and all that great stuff that you mentioned.

00:27:39:07 - 00:28:08:01
Unknown
So I love those examples. That was great advice. But Dana, as we wrap up here, can you share any any real life success stories or case studies even of businesses that have effectively navigated this succession planning process? Yes, sure. So I will share that. There was a company that I worked with not long ago and they had a pretty good succession planning process already in place with their meetings and their documentation.

00:28:08:01 - 00:28:32:10
Unknown
And and it wasn't automated. They were they were using an Excel sheet. It worked for them. It was not a large organization. So as they continue to grow, they might want to automate. And that was one of the things we did talk about. And but what they really wanted to focus on were accountability and what kind of enhancements could they do to their existing process.

00:28:32:12 - 00:28:50:15
Unknown
So there were a couple of things that we talked about, and one was moving from meeting twice a year to for a while. Let's make four times a year and then people get it's it's closer, right? So you've done it more times and people are kind of more ready each time because it's like, that's three months now.

00:28:50:16 - 00:29:23:05
Unknown
Not six months away. So I've got to be ready. And what have I done from from this meeting to the next? And that's a reflection of me as a leader on my performance. Did I take time to dedicate to developing my people? So kind of making those meetings more frequently can really help with that accountability piece. But then the other thing that one of the things that I had had experience with in the past I recommended was make one of the leaders or the owner of a particular meeting.

00:29:23:07 - 00:29:43:09
Unknown
So if it was my turn to be the leader of the meeting, then I set the meeting. I sent out the invites, I pull up the database for doing it virtually, and I show it online and we have and I facilitate the conversation. That's a different level of ownership. You know what? If I know I'm going to be responsible for the meeting, I'm going to do all my prep work ahead of time.

00:29:43:09 - 00:29:59:10
Unknown
And it's just like anything else, like riding a bike, right? The more you do it, the easier it gets, the better you get at it, the more comfortable you are with it. So if I have to have ownership in a meeting, I'm going to work a little harder to get prepared and I don't want to go in ill prepared.

00:29:59:12 - 00:30:32:20
Unknown
But also it's a way to get more used to it. So you've got somebody that can kind of run that meeting. And then the other thing we did talk about was potentially automating the process and again, just making it easier for the leaders to to do that work. That's that's part of our work as leaders. So the executive team, if they need to approve like the purchase of some kind of software to make this work easier and better information, better data to work with, that might be part of this your succession planning work too.

00:30:32:22 - 00:30:56:10
Unknown
So that was a company that I worked with before or one of our member companies that I worked with, but in my own role before I came to MRA in my past. When our past lives, if you will, one element in our succession planning process that I liked was so you had accountability to your leadership to do the work, to come in to the meetings prepared.

00:30:56:15 - 00:31:20:16
Unknown
And if we were not prepared, our leader was having a conversation with us about not doing the work. But the other thing is kind of like dual accountability was the expectation was after those meetings and after the conversation and all, I would go back and have a meeting with the people on my team that we talked about the high potentials and the high performers, and to have the conversation around here is what you do really well.

00:31:20:18 - 00:31:38:03
Unknown
And here are some things we think you could benefit from. And so let's make that happen. But that was an expectation. So my leader would say, have you had your accountability meetings with your team yet? So it's kind of coming from both directions and it's just another way to kind of make the work happen. But it is a little bit of muscle memory.

00:31:38:03 - 00:32:05:03
Unknown
You know, again, the more you do it, the easier it gets and you start having those conversations and planning it and it just becomes part of the work after that for sure. Those are great examples too, and even some action steps that listeners can take away and start implementing right away too. Yeah, it's very. Dana, I want to thank you for being on the podcast today and thank you for sharing your expertise and your success with succession planning.

00:32:05:05 - 00:32:27:03
Unknown
Thank we yeah, and to our listeners, if you like the chat and topic today, I know a lot of our members and listeners request this topic, so I would urge you to comment something new that you learned today or anything that you really like to add on to this conversation. We always want to hear from you and your what you're doing specifically on this topic too.

00:32:27:05 - 00:32:49:03
Unknown
Don't forget to share out this episode and consider joining MRA if you aren't member already. We have all the resources you need in the show Notes below, including a number of succession planning resources in the show notes below too. So take a look at those. We've also got Dana's bio and LinkedIn profiles, so if you'd like to connect with her, Dana, I hope that's okay.

00:32:49:03 - 00:33:09:22
Unknown
You might be getting some good connections lately, otherwise. Thank you so much for tuning in, Dana. I appreciate you being here and we'll see you next week. And that wraps up our content for this episode. Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign them to connect for more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform.

00:33:09:23 - 00:33:19:15
Unknown
And as always, make sure to follow MRA's 30 minutes THRIVE so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.