Leadership Succession Planning - Still Not A Priority for Most Organizations

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

I am reading a new book by Noel Tichy on Succession Planning. Dr Tichy is a professor of business at the University of Michigan and a national expert on leadership transition. Succession planning for leadership transition, he believes, should be seen as a critical success factor for any organization because leadership really does matter. The lack of leadership succession planning, he contends, is a nationwide problem. Based on recent research done to assess the state of succession planning in nursing, his comments target a serious problem in healthcare today. We are now experiencing the loss of significant numbers of Baby Boomer leaders and are not prepared to replace them. At the same time, the United States is currently engaged in one of the greatest and far reaching transformations of health care delivery in history. From Washington DC policymakers down to the care at the bedside, the entire healthcare system is addressing issues of access, quality, and cost. Such a massive undertaking impacts the healthcare workforce, and the various constituencies providing care. It requires strong and innovative leadership.

Why Succession Planning is Not Happening

The importance of planning for the future may be overlooked due to competing short and long term goals which seem to have more immediate impact. While there are best practices in succession planning discussed in the nursing literature, these initiatives are more the exception than the norm. Yet, nurse leader consistency is essential to organizations to drive high quality care and maintain a healthy practice environment. Disruption in filling key leadership roles can prevent the continual learning that is essential to strengthening organizational capacity and will limit our ability to do effective health reform planning. Effective succession planning through the identification and development of emerging nurse leaders should be an essential business strategy for both organizations and the community at large but it is not. Part of the issue may revolve around the costs of doing comprehensive leadership development. Some organizations will not spend resources until there is a problem. Tichy argues that this is short-sighted because the data clearly shows that when organizations have to go outside to recruit leaders – it is usually more costly and often unsuccessful because candidates don’t understand the culture or politics.

Some Nurse Leaders Feel Threatened

Organizational planning is not the only barrier to effective succession planning. Some seasoned leaders feel threatened about the possibility that they could be replaced and don’t seek to build a bench of talented future leaders. Today’s aging leaders owe it to the future of their organizations to be more transparent in their own retirement planning. Effective leadership succession planning should also include projected timelines for the retirement of key leaders in an organization. Potential candidates can never be promised with certainty that they will inherit specific positions but they do need to be developed.

What Gets Measured Gets Done

When Jack Welch was the CEO at General Electric, succession planning for him was a key measure of performance. He clearly understood that the future of GE would depend on how he and other leaders developed their emerging leaders with structured classes and stretch assignments to gain experience. It is interesting that succession planning is not a metric in healthcare today although it is a looming problem. Perhaps if organizations like the Joint Commission and Magnet built it into standards, we would see more of commitment.

A whole generation of highly experienced, well-educated nurse leaders is looking ahead to retirement yet wonder who the next nurse leaders will be given the absence of widespread succession planning efforts in the state. They have provided data about the competencies and skills needed by future nurse leaders yet current leadership development efforts are limited. John Maxwell, an internationally recognized leadership expert, points out in his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership that “a leader’s lasting legacy will not be measured by the buildings we build, the institutions we establish, or what our team accomplished. Leaders are judged by how well the people they invest in carry on after they are gone”. This is important guidance for nurse leaders today.

Read to Lead

Tichy, N.(2014). Succession Planning: Mastering the Make-or-Break Process of Leadership Transition. New York: Portfolio Hardcover.

Maxwell, J.C. (2007). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership: Follow them and people will follow you. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Sverdlik BS. Who will be our nurse leaders in the future? The role of succession planning. J Nurs Admin.2012; 42(7/8): 383-385.