In the recent past, succession planning has attracted the attention of the best brains in the field of management research. Based on their research, Jay A Conger and Robert M Fulmer (2003) have prescribed a five-rule framework for managing succession planning effectively so as to build a steady, reliable pipeline of leadership talent in business organizations. Among their dictums, the most important is: transparency in the selection process of successors. Traditionally, succession planning is shrouded in secrecy, perhaps, with the good intention of avoiding sapping the motivation of those staff members who are not on the fast track to such promotions.
However good the intentions may be, in today's environment such secrecy is likely to erode the very credibility of the newly appointed CEO, particularly in the eyes of the led. On the other hand, today, a need has arisen for organizations to let employees know where they stand on the ladder to the ultimate leadership of the organization, so that they can strive to better their skill-set and climb the ladder. Good succession management is, however, feasible only in those organizations whose culture encourages candor and risk-taking at the executive level—where truth is valued more over the other personal considerations.
There is yet another reason—the most important one, particularly in today's globalized economy—for organizations to be transparent in their selection process of leaders. To better appreciate this need we must first take a look at what leadership is. Leadership is essentially perceived as the exercise of power—the power to get things done, which is, of course, said to be contingent on circumstances. Research, however, tells that there are also a set of more transcendent qualities that flow from the source of `power' from which a leader operates, and these qualities are known to serve a leader well in different kinds of business settings. |
