Succession Planning is Business Continuity Insurance

You have insurance, right? You’ve got life insurance, health insurance, car insurance — maybe (hopefully!) business liability or E&O coverage.

So why wouldn't you “insure” the continuity of your company?

Planning for the future wellbeing and care of your business — through proactive succession planning — is a form of insurance, too. It protects not just your livelihood, but the people who depend on your company every day: your employees, clients, vendors, and partners.

Let’s play this out. What’s your plan if a key team member suddenly gives notice? Or gets sick? Or moves out of state for a spouse’s job? Or just burns out and walks away?

Do you have two or more individuals who could confidently step up — even temporarily — to fill that gap?

Or would the company be “dead in the water” while you scramble to rewrite the job description… because so much of what that person did was stored in their head like a vault?

If there’s no documentation, no cross-training, no designated second-in-command… you’re not just down a person. You’re down momentum. You’re down knowledge, relationships, trust, and time. AND if you have to hire someone from outside the company to fill the role, you’re down a lot of money too.

Succession planning helps you avoid that kind of scramble. It’s not just about preparing for retirement — although that’s important. It’s about building internal bench strength, identifying future leaders, and creating a safety net for your operations.

And no, it doesn’t have to be complicated or formal or time-consuming.

It can start with small steps:

Create accurate job descriptions ASAP

Start with the current job description and the incumbent in the role. Ask them to edit the description to “bring it up to date.” Ensure they add anything they are currently doing that is not in the description.

Then, ask them to take a second pass and estimate the amount of time they spend on each task per week or month (e.g. I usually spend 4 hours a day answering customer inquires via phone or email. Four hours per day, multiplied by five days per week, equals 20 hours or 50% of the work week. Now you know you are looking for someone with exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal; time management skills; and organizational skills.

If you really want to create an accurate job description, have someone observe the person doing the role for a day or two. They will undoubtedly identify tasks that are not on the job description because so many of us, when we are expert at something, don’t even see it as a task! The incumbent might describe their role as “answering customer account questions,” but the observer sees using a database, reading and interpreting past queries to get up to speed quickly, being able to think critcially in order to “triage” questions as urgent or routine, etc.

Next, ask the incumbent, “Who else could do this if needed?”

If the answer is no one, you need to assign a co-worker to cross-train with the incumbent.

Early in my career I had a key role in a small company – I was the only one who knew how to do it; even my boss had no idea what I did. About two or three months into the job, I asked if I might have the sales secretary work with me two afternoons a week so that I could train her to do my job.

Honestly, I wasn’t doing it for the good of the company, I was doing it for me. What if I got sick, or wanted to go on vacation? I was trapped! And what if I got hit by a bus (which, no lie, our receptionist did, although in her case it was a dump truck, and she was out of work for eight months!)? Was my trainee perfect at the job? No. But she could have kept the wheels turning.

It's important to invest in developing successors now (preferably multiple successors [look what happened at JP Morgan Chase earlier this year]), while things are calm.

Succession planning is part human resources strategy, part professional development, and part peace-of-mind generator.

Succession planning is the insurance policy you need, to ensure that if one person leaves, the whole company doesn’t go down.

Need help in this area? Give us a call … even if you just want free advice! We are happy to give it .