Logan Roy is fun to watch but maybe not to emulate

What I have learnt from some crazy succession planning over the years

 The return of the family drama, Succession, to our television screens last week prompted me to think about the succession sagas I have been involved in over the years. From my own succession planning at lastminute.com to chairing boards and nomination committees, I sometimes think I have seen nearly as many twists and turns as Logan Roy himself. In my experience, it is often an emotional subject, and one that is hard to get right.

So what have I witnessed that might be valuable if you are not only watching the television series but also thinking about the issue at work?

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, ego has to be put aside for all the conversations. No one is indispensable. It’s difficult, particularly as stress levels run high when you’re a departing founder or long-term leader, but you must try to work off data, not desire.

 I was once on a board where the chief executive scheduled a long non executive session to talk about plans for after his resignation. So far so good, but it transpired that the conclusion of his Powerpoint presentation  was that his skills were so unusual that the only solution was to split his job in two. He proposed a change to the whole structure of the business and said no fewer than  two new people would be needed to fill the unimaginable void left by him. Perhaps in some rare scenarios this might be appropriate, but in this one, we promoted one member of his team, who turned out just fine.

One of the ways emotion can be tamed, is by seeing succession as an ongoing process, not as a single moment in time. It is not something that is only done when a leader is about to retire or depart. By starting early and talking about it often, you can ensure you have a pipeline of talent being groomed for future roles, and that the discussions are part of your normal business update, not fraught or in a panic.

The perils of not doing the preparatory work are well illustrated by what happened to Uber. Travis Kalanick, the founder, was forced to resign following a series of scandals, including accusations of a toxic work culture and sexual harassment allegations. At the time of his resignation, Uber did not have a clear succession plan in place, which led to a period of uncertainty and instability. Uber's board of directors engaged in a public power struggle over who would become the next boss. This resulted in several high-profile candidates withdrawing from consideration, including Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard and former General Electric boss, Jeff Immelt. The company suffered during this long drawn out process.

Next, I have learnt that it is helpful to stay as open-minded as possible. Sure, you may be desperate to hire that superstar you saw speak at a conference, but it might be that the best solution is to promote a quiet member of your existing team.  I nearly screwed up in one process when I didn’t immediately consider a candidate from an underrepresented group who just needed some mentoring and training. She proved to be a huge success.

In companies where you play an active role in any kind of succession planning, make notes on people both internal and external that might be relevant in the future. This can be as tenuous as an interesting news story about a stranger, or as detailed as a long conversation with an existing employee when visiting an office.  

Finally, keep quiet. This point might be more controversial, and depends on the type of succession planning you are doing, but anointing a successor either implicitly or explicitly can lead to a bad team dynamic and unrealistic expectations. Of course in a small business, you will create a different process to that in a large public company, but unclear and leaky procedures are only ever harmful. The very public blow-outs that hit the news headlines occasionally show what a distraction bad succession work can be. When Steve Ballmer announced that he would be stepping down from Microsoft, a search was initiated which reportedly involved a list of around 40 potential candidates. With such a high number of interviewees, details of the process soon leaked to the media and affected the share price and the company morale. You don’t have to be a big public company for some of the same issues to apply, so keeping a tight, clearly defined and completely confidential process helps.

If fictional ‘Succession’ can teach us one thing about the real world, however, it must be to prepare a communications plan for all eventualities. In 2001 the Queen was visiting Australia and the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, fell ill. Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, stepped in and joked to reporters that he had carried out a "palace coup" and was "the new Governor-General." Although it was meant as harmless humour, his succession comment sparked uproar in Australia, the media went wild and his comments created a diplomatic incident. 

So, I wish you uneventful succession planning. But if you are knee deep in a complicated scenario, you could take comfort from knowing you might have enough material for a hit TV show.