Whether your exit plan involves family members, business partners or even employees, a great deal of work must be done to ready the company's leadership for continued success.
Choosing a successor involves three steps:
Identifying future leadership needs of the business.
Assessing existing skills and potential candidates.
Creating a feedback and monitoring mechanism to assess the progress of leaders-in-training.
What qualifications are needed for your successor? Apart from business skills and knowledge, you might consider candidates with the following leadership qualities:
global thinking;
focus on results;
performs tasks & projects with speed;
keeps a customer focus;
has concern for people;
respects others; and
trusts others and is trustworthy.
Your retirement plan should include a written job description for the chief leadership position that family and other interested candidates can study.
