Succession planning means more than just ensuring a strong, healthy board membership. The leadership of the board should have the capacity of step into any of the positions in the leadership group in the event of an emergency or unexpected vacancy.
Transparency in Process
A clear and transparent process for how the leadership positions are filled is required. Individuals involved in membership organizations are no longer willing to tolerate “behind closed door” processes for how officers are selected. There is growing concern among regular memberships that secretive processes could mean other things are being hidden from them. For the health and vitality of the board, it is important to ensure that the process for officer selection be transparent.
Selection Criteria
It is also important that an officer/director succession plan optimize the likelihood that the people who fill these positions match the leadership needs of the association/non-profit. The organization’s vision and strategic plan contain the criteria for the board’s leadership requirements. Use these as key criteria in the selection process used by the organization’s board.
A straightforward way to achieve this is to develop a succession plan that automatically moves someone up the ladder from Secretary-Treasurer to Second Vice-President to the First Vice-President to President. If you choose this strategy, it is very important to ensure that board members are selected or elected to these positions because they possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to do the job. They should understand the succession plan strategy, the commitment required and should not be selected because they have served the required amount of time, have demonstrated loyalty to the association/non-profit, and/or have nothing else to do. These last qualities do not make for strong leadership.
Ongoing Board Development
Leadership training and board development opportunities should be part of what is provided to board members each year and it should be a requirement that members of the leadership team participate.
The legacy of each board member should be a standard of excellence in governance that is higher than the board that preceded it. One key ingredient in making this happen is an ambitious succession plan.
