This has become an increasingly common coaching intervention for me as people grapple with the twin demands of a work and a home life in a world where there is a perception of limited job security coupled with performance targets that are the major measure of success in the job role.
In these types of engagements, the coach’s role is to offer the coachee a neutral space to work on evolving their career path outside the pressure of the company’s formal performance management process. The coaching sessions will often work in tandem with the company’s formal processes and as such, allow the coachee to gain a more holistic perspective on their career path and direction.
Once you have decided that Succession Planning can make a significant difference in your company and that HR actually have the needed competencies to succeed there a number of things to consider.
This form of mentoring is extremely satisfying, as you watch a younger person gaining confidence and inspiring and motivating others. It is also extremely necessary to ensure that the next generation of talent is ready to take on the challenge of setting direction and leading our organisations in a world that becomes increasingly unpredictable and prone to change.
I must confess that I am in doubt here. My HR heart can very easily understand the benefits for companies in having a structured Succession Planning Process. I see Succession Planning as a strategy for passing each key leadership role within a company to someone else in such a way that the company continues to operate after the incumbent leader is no longer in control. Succession planning ensures that businesses continue to run smoothly after the business’s most important people move on to new opportunities, retire or pass away. Therefore, it makes sense.
This coaching intervention is about creating a safe space for the coachee to test new ideas on how to influence their manager without the benefit of ‘title power’. It is often a cause of frustration and centres around the coachee not finding a way of being appropriately assertive. In their communication style, they will typically undershoot and consequently appear evasive or overshoot and consequently appear blunt or rude.
It’s a fact of corporate life that external consultants have come to play a significant role in helping many organisations shape or implement new organisation strategies, structures and systems. Understanding how external consultants operate is key to successfully managing critical projects and in turn obtaining value for money. The day to day responsibility for managing these external professionals often falls to internal specialists who work in the HR, IT or finance spaces.
If the answer is “not much because I do not have time for it” or “I don’t need to because I am already doing well and getting what I want done” then it is time for you to have a serious reflection.
Finance Business Partners are like many other support specialists extremely “time-poor.” Given the highly presurised weekly and monthly cycles that most work under, it’s all too easy to get sucked into the act of just “doing” as opposed to thinking and then influencing strategically. Our work at PPI with many functions reveals some key action points for finance professionals to look out for and execute.
Enabling finance people to engage in wider business discussions about how their understanding of the numbers can influence real business outcomes and effect organisational change.