Succession planning builds adaptable, emotionally intelligent leaders ready for complexity. It goes beyond replacing roles, pairing rigorous assessment with real growth. By developing latent talent aligned to organisational values, it secures future leadership and long-term success.
Succession planning must be cultural, not procedural. Pipelines grounded in organisational ethos—reinforced through mentorship and rotations—pass on tacit knowledge and identity. Transparent engagement builds trust, making leadership transitions fair, strategic, and resilient.
Succession planning sustains organisations by preparing for leadership transitions while protecting values and goals. It fosters equity, transparency, and cultural alignment, using mentorship and collaboration to balance stability with innovation and build resilient leadership systems.
Informal leadership is most effective when conducted with a small number of closed ties (involving three people) and a mix of friendship- and task-orientated activities. When the ties are open (involving only two people) or become too numerous, informal leadership begins to break down and can hinder
Successful DEI comes down to balance—ensuring that belief doesn't descend into ideology. A process that is founded on the bedrock of psychological safety.
When leadership is exerted in this form, organisations become increasingly accountable, agile, and autonomous — all the while operating at scale. At this point, an organisation can truly be described as 'purpose-driven' — a genuinely awesome competitive advantage.
Once the capability gap is closed, instead of feeling fear and frustration about not knowing how to perform a role or achieve an outcome, staff are empowered to deliver value and be rewarded for their achievement.
The challenge for managers is that we are no longer comparing apples with apples. Instead, we must leverage the power of personas to better understand the individuals that make up our teams.
While the overall numbers of people affected by mental health issues is a cause for concern, perhaps as alarming are the number of firms or individual managers who engaging in well-being washing.
By tackling some of the common problems, teams and organisations will be well placed to achieve aspirational efficiency objectives. When this happens, we can get one of those virtuous circles in which the approach sticks and compounds over the years.
