LEADERSHIP AND SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR CARIBBEAN LIBRARIES

 

SLIDE 1 TOPIC TO BE DISCUSSED

It is my pleasure to be with you here today. Thank you for inviting me. I have been asked to discuss with you Leadership and Succession Planning for Caribbean Libraries.

 

SLIDE 2 OBJECTIVES OF THIS WORKSHOP

          Discuss the importance of Leadership development and Succession Planning in our profession as Librarians and here in the Caribbean

          Give an overview of the strategies used in Leadership development and the essential elements for developing a successful Succession Plan

          Discuss the current challenges to Succession Planning that we are experiencing here in the Caribbean and methods of dealing with them.

 

SLIDE 3 SUCCESSION PLANNING

Often, the biggest hurdle to success is simply a failure to plan and prepare for succession (Keith Goudy). We have all heard or are aware of the term Succession Planning. This is a process by which an organization ensures the continuity of its leadership into the future. We as Librarians understand that we have an enormous responsibility to our stakeholders both the members of the public, who rely upon their libraries for education, research, enrichment and enjoyment, as well as the library s employees. As such we need to seriously consider how succession planning can be made more relevant to regenerating leadership in our libraries. For organizations such as ours, succession planning will involve the adaptation of specific procedures to ensure the identification, development and long-term retention of talented individuals. It is important because the continued survival of the organization depends on having the right people in the right place at the right times.

 

SLIDE 4 DEFINITION OF SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession planning has been defined over the years in numerous ways. Some have referred to it as the deliberate and systematic effort to project leadership requirements, to identify a pool of high potential candidates, develop leadership competencies in those candidates through intentional learning experiences, and then select leaders from the pool of potential leaders. For the purpose here today, we will define succession planning as the strategic, systematic and deliberate effort to develop competencies in potential leaders through purposed learning experiences such as targeted rotations and educational training in order to fill high-level positions without favoritism.

 

SLIDE 5 & 6 THE IMPORTANCE OF SUCCESSION PLANNING

It is essential that one keeps in mind that we now live in an era of globalization. Changes are taking place rapidly brought about by the increasing use of technology and the globalization of the economy. This has forced organizations to constantly shift their focus by restructuring the way they work and operate in their drive for higher productivity and greater competitiveness. As such organizations even ones like ours must be constantly re-evaluating themselves to ensure their effectiveness as well as re-evaluating their leadership s qualities on the bases of their strengths and skills which could most benefit the institution.

 

Succession planning requires reviewing business strategy with its changing goals and priorities as a means of pinpointing the key skills and behaviors, but with the focus on the skills and strategies required to achieve the desired business results. Therefore to effectively do succession planning in any organization, one must identify the organization s long term goals. Practicing strategic succession planning seeks to anticipate the future job requirements of [an organization] in light of strategic or environmental changes . Organizational strategy and succession planning should therefore be interactive.

 

Some widely accepted benefits of succession planning include:

         Assured continuity of prepared leaders for key executive positions,

         A disciplined process of reviewing leadership talent,

         Increased opportunities for high potential workers,

         Increased talent pool of promotable employees,

         Contribution to the organization s business plans,

         Assisting individuals to realize their own career plans within the organization,

         Developing strong leadership teams for strategic tasks.

 

Other benefits include identifying replacement needs as a means of targeting necessary training, employee education and employee development; improving employee s morale and their ability to respond to changing organizational and environmental demands and encouraging the advancement of diverse groups and supporting multiculturalism in organizations. The most important goal of succession planning or management is implementing a flexible, dynamic approach for developing strong leadership teams. This ensures that the organization has depth in its leadership capability.

 

SLIDE 7-9 DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP THROUGH SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession Planning however is more than finding the next best leader. It is the process of defining our organization s future direction in terms of leadership skills. It is a deliberate and systematic effort to ensure leadership in key positions and encourage individual advancement. In reality, good succession planning or management develops a pool of talent with skills, attributes, and experiences to fill specific, often high-level positions.

 

It is essential that we always keep in mind, as we help our organizations develop and recruit the next generation of leaders, that it is important to see our field s and organization s needs with fresh eyes. As organizations have grown in size and complexity, and as the operating environment has become more demanding, replicating that leadership preparation style may not be desirable or even possible. By defining the organization s next era the focus is on the skills needed in the future instead of only the skill possessed by the current leader.

 

Once you have identified these skills and strengths of the organization s potential leaders, you need to develop these leadership skills and strengths through Succession Planning. The most significant strategy to developing leadership abilities and build a learning organization for the twenty-first century begins in the perception of the importance of training. This begins with a method of assessment listed below:

         Commitment

o   The commitment from top management to train and develop employees is communicated effectively through the organization

o   Employee at all levels are aware of the broad aims or visions of the organization

o   The organization has considered what employees at all levels will contribute to the success of the organization and has communicated this effectively to them

o   Where representative structures exist, management communicates with employee representatives a vision of where the organization is going and the contribution employees (and their representatives) will make to its success

        Planning

o   A written but flexible plan sets out the organization s goals and targets

o   A written plan identifies the organization s training and development needs, and specifies what action will be taken to meet these needs

o   Training and development needs are regularly reviewed against goals and targets at the organization, team and individual level

o   A written plan identifies the resources that will be used to meet training and development needs

o   Responsibility for training and developing employee is clearly identified and understood throughout the organization

         Action

o   All new employees are introduced effectively to the organization and all employees new to a job are given the training and development they need to do that job

o   Managers are actively involved in supporting employees to meet their needs

o   All employees are made aware of the training and development opportunities open to them

o   All employees are encouraged to help identify and meet their job-related training and development needs

o   Action takes place to meet the training and development needs of individuals, teams and the organization

          Evaluation

o   The organization evaluates the impact of training and development actions on knowledge, skills, performance, and achievement of goals and targets

o   Top management understands the broad costs and benefits of developing people

o   Action takes place to implement improvements to training and development identified as a result of evaluation

o   Top management s continuing commitment to training and developing employees is demonstrated to all employees.

 

This assessment process focuses minds at all levels on the problem of professional skills and knowledge, providing a framework for analysis and action, encourages better measurement methods for performance improvement, demonstrates the value put on staff effort by management and offers a snapshot of morale, communications, and perspectives at all levels.

 

Training however is not the only strategy in Succession Planning which develops leaders. Other strategies for developing leadership abilities include mentoring, structured job assignments, feedback, workshops and seminars and the use of a team approach.

 

Mentoring is the process of handing down knowledge and wisdom gathered through years of experience. A mentor is a senior experienced employee who serves as a role model to provide direction, support and feedback to younger employees. A mentor s role is usually focusing on the growth of the individual through interpersonal development and career planning and advancement. It is recommended that departing leaders increase their time teaching, mentoring, modeling core organizational values and conveying the organization s and field s oral history to the coming generations of professionals. We as leaders have much to pass on, but those core values, core ideas, core service technologies, and core management strategies may be our most important legacies.

 

All of these strategies when used together will give us a sound basis on which to build a flexible staff ready to meet the many challenges of the next century.

 

SLIDE 10 THE PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESSION PLANNING

Succession planning will only happen when the right ingredients are there at the start. Based on the Succession Planning Tool Kit by Paula Singer the following are the prerequisites for Succession Planning:

         Commitment From The Top Management Management has to see this as a burning issue that requires focused attention and dedicated resources,

         Ownership Succession Planning may be developed and administered by human resources, but it is owned by management. Management has the talent and skills to identify the attributes of future leadership, provide development opportunities and the feed back necessary for high-potential employees to morph into leaders.

         Vision Of What The Organization Will Need Understand the changing demographics and how they will directly impact the organization and over what time period the change will hit

         Snapshot Of Present Conditions Have a frank, objective, and accurate understanding of the current work force. What talents are currently found in the organization and which are lacking. Strive to understand how the skill sets will change over the planning horizon and develop ideas of how the library will recruit or develop needed skills

         Openness To Non-Traditional Sources of Talent If library leaders continue to look for employees in traditional labour markets, they may fail. More likely, leadership will have to redefine the ideal worker, who may be part-time, multilingual, telecommuting, or a shift worker. Alternatives to traditional working hours and locations will facilitate staffing

         A Well-Documented Training and Development Program Succession Planning works best where the organization already has a culture of learning and development. Organizations that practice just in time learning and development have yet to develop the foresight or the patience to cultivate new leadership over years. Those who hope to establish succession planning processes in these places have a Herculean task before them. They will have to persuade the library s leadership to take a broader and longer-term view of the library s HR needs and to invest in a formal training and development process.

 

SLIDE 11 THE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING

According to Paula Singer, Succession Planning can be accomplished by following these eight directions:

         Determine The Organizations Strategic Direction Considering the enormous changes in the populations age and diversity, and tremendous changes in our access to information, you are probably due to make a real strategic shift. Are you planning to make significant changes? Are changes in your customer base going to force major changes in the way you manage your library? How will any changes influence how you serve core clients and develop services for the future?

         Identify Critical Management and Technical Positions Will the next generation of leaders have to be especially adept at understanding technology? Will they have to be extremely flexible and insightful when dealing with employees of different cultures, backgrounds, and motivations? If you had to write a job description of your organization s next generation leader, what skills, knowledge, abilities, and experiences would you list? (An excellent model for thinking this through is provided in Lou Adler s Hire with Your Head: Using Power Hiring To Build Great Companies.)

         Project Future Vacancies You have an existing work force of employees at all stages of their careers. Inventory your employees just as you would inventory your up-to-date materials in the reference section. This entails looking at who is on staff, how much longer you expect them to stay and what their capabilities are and could be, given growth opportunities. Who, with proper mentoring and developmental assignments, can provide the critical skills, abilities, and knowledge identified in the previous step? These are the future leaders waiting to be developed in your organization.

         Determine Executive Descriptors For Future Leaders Executive descriptors, or competencies, are organizationally based requirements that support performance success. Examples might include Customer Service Orientation, Fiscal Responsibility, Innovation, Results Orientation, and Teamwork. Many competency directories include competency definitions and assessment options. Rely on HR staff or a consultant to facilitate model development, or appoint an individual or team to research and develop a model. A generic model is available through the U.S. Department of Labor (wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS)

         Identify Holes In Staffing Determine what your future potential leadership needs will be and who might be available to fill the gaps. You may find that you have adequate staff to meet future needs. If not, where will you find candidates, and how will you attract them to your organization?

         Diagnose Developmental Needs Ensure your potential leadership pool have the skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience to take on the mantle of leadership. Review your candidates against the job specifications, including competencies to identify developmental gaps. Planned development can close these gaps through training programs, special assignments, leadership opportunities and other means.

         Create A Deliberate Development Plan You may believe that leaders are born, not made, but they all need time to gestate. Implement development opportunities. Your high potential candidates will need care and cultivation to amass the skills still needed. Provide the lead time two years is a good time frame to allow them to learn from the experiences you provide. And develop several high potential candidates in tandem. Your first choice may abruptly redirect his/her career or be enticed by another employer so it s best to be prepared.

         Review Progress And Provide New Assignments Tell your high potentials that you are giving them development opportunities for future leadership positions. Tell them what their gaps are and how you see these specific opportunities as helping them bridge the gaps. Provide plenty of feedback on how they are progressing. If they are not progressing or meeting expectations, lay the cards on the table. If they are meeting expectations, provide additional assignments to challenge their learning. If someone is ready before the expected position opens up, don t worry. With the turnover many libraries are experiencing and the increased need for people to work on or manage special projects, there will be something for them to do in most every situation.

 

SLIDE 12 SUCCESSION PLANNING MISTAKES

The traditional focus of Succession Planning was on a particular individual. As such the typical problems experienced included: selecting in one s own image, ratings reflecting the perceptions of a single rater, dashed expectations of individual high fliers, losing top performers and insufficient attention to development (managers often have a narrow view of leadership development strategies). Focusing purely on the individual in Succession Planning is unsuited to today s organizational design.

 

Other common mistakes/problems affecting Succession Planning include:

         Lack of support from top management

         Corporate politics use of the corporate ladder to promote friends, allies, etc

         Quick-fix attitudes where effectiveness is sacrificed to expediency (ill-chosen leaders can prompt higher-than-normal turnover among their followers and create morale problems and even bankruptcy)

         The low visibility of many Succession Planning programs to be successful, Succession Planning must enjoy the active support and direct participation of management employees at all levels.

         The rapid pace of organizational change creates considerable difficulty in predicting succession over a three to five year period in an era of rapid change.

         On a more pragmatic level, some Succession Plans also fail do to too much paperwork and too many meetings.

 

SLIDE 13 AN EFFECTIVE SUCCESSION PLANNING PROGRAM

The characteristics of an effective succession planning program according to Angela Bridgland will include the following:

         A systematic approach with top management participation and support,

         A needs-driven program focused on accelerating the development of high-potential employees who have verified advancement potential,

         Dedicated responsibility if a goal deserves attention, then someone needs to be held responsible for achieving it,

         Extension of succession planning to all levels. The plan encompasses more than a mere replacement of key positions or people,

         A global perspective which anticipates future job content in reference to international, social, cultural, economic, political and industrial changes. This includes the use of external benchmarks for best practice succession planning and leadership development,

         Clarification of high-level replacement needs, such as the determination of retirement plans of key job incumbents in order to identify developmental time spans for each key position,

         Obligation of executives to identify and prepare successors. This may well be part of the key responsibilities in their position description,

         Establishment and maintenance of specific development programs for employees with high potential including the establishment of familiarity with the corporate environment. Learning and working are successfully integrated,

         Emphasis on formal mentoring mentors are teachers rather than figures in authority, and provide on-the-job advice about dealing with challenges presented by the work environment, including interpersonal problems and political issues. Mentors can reinforce the values of the organization and can successfully model the critical competencies required for movement to higher levels.

 

SLIDE 14 CHANGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS IMPACT ON SUCCESSION PLANNING IN CARIBBEAN LIBRARIES

We as Librarians in the Caribbean are all reaching an evolutionary stage the hybrid library which is a mixture of the traditional and the new skills and media. While print culture is still very much alive, we still have to use a familiar blend of professional techniques to sustain it. At the same time, the building blocks of the electronic library the virtual library begin to fall into place and we have to make decisions about the balance of traditional and new services.

 

What does this all mean for library staff? It means that we still need our full range of Librarian skills, but that we are also resembling more our colleagues elsewhere on campus. We need an ever-growing IT expertise (not least to decide when IT is not the solution). We are taking on an increasing role in training our users, indeed teaching core modules in information skills. We have to undertake research, to establish the best way of doing things, the best value for money, as well as discover the degree of satisfaction with which services are received by our users. We have to raise money through consultancy, teaching courses in and out of the University, and organizing seminars. We are becoming experts in electronic licenses, creating World Wide Web pages, in negotiating digitization rights with commercial publishers. We are already more explicitly managers of information as well as custodians of books.

 

We as the Library s leaders need to now have a vision of the future and a mental model, of the type of organization which can ride, rather than be swamped by change, while helping colleagues develop the cast of mind which turns daily experiences into a learning process.

 

SLIDE 15 THE CURRENT SITUATION IN CARIBBEAN LIBRARIES

There are a number of changes taking place within higher education which impact on Succession Planning in our region and these include:

v  The expansion of student numbers

v  The increasing amount of information in electronic format

v  The inadequate funding (more with less)

 

One of the major problems within the Caribbean as we all here are aware of is the lack of trained professionals in our field of librarianship.

 

Overall, Succession Planning is about orchestrating the organizational change of leadership by understanding all the factors at play (both spoken and unspoken), treating everyone involved with respect, and continually maintaining a cohesive vision of the future throughout the process.

 

SLIDE 16 CASE STUDY: THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES EXPERIENCE

There is no formal succession plan at the University of the West Indies but as part of the assessment process information is collected which could be fed into Succession Planning.

 

There is a form for the Librarian to complete which includes a question: What career path do you envisage for yourself and what training do you need for it? This is like a core element for career planning from the point of view of the staff member and for the Institution. It offers an opportunity for the Head of the Department to identify the career goals and potential of staff.

 

Staff at the para-professional level are also asked about special aptitudes they display and training from which they would benefit.

 

Since advancement within the career path weights heavily on scholarly output of professionals, those with potential are strongly encouraged to develop a scholarly profile.

 

Approximately twenty years ago changes in Management at the St Augustine Campus saw the hiring of individuals outside the organization for two top positions. Thereafter developing talent from within proceeded mainly by means of management attachments at overseas libraries, short courses in management training and opportunities to participate. Changes only ten years ago saw training occurring from within the University and approximately 5 years ago a Senior Management Team was developed where a team based-approach to leadership roles was introduced.

 

SLIDE 17 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Why should libraries develop or support Succession Planning and Management Programs?

1)      To provide increased opportunities for high potential workers (those who have the potential for future advancement

2)      Identifying replacement needs as a means of targeting necessary training, employee education and employee development

3)      Increase the talent pool of promotable employees by formalizes the process of preparing nominees to fill key positions in the future

4)      Contributes to implementing the organizations strategic plan.

 

Is Succession Planning only relevant for the top positions in libraries?

 

Is there a difference between Succession Planning and Replacement Planning?

  Succession planning should however not be confused with replacement planning.

  Replacement planning is a more reactive and limited in scope.

  Succession planning involves the adaptation of specific procedures to ensure the identification, development and long-term retention of talented individuals.

 

What is the link between Succession Planning and Strategic Planning?

 

What are some of the ways in which individual employees can help organizations participate in Succession Planning?

 

What strategies might be used to ensure successful Succession Planning?

  We need to know which spots will be empty in the coming years and what new spots will be created as the company grows. Only then will early identification of key talent allow companies to proactively develop leaders for the future. In short, the solution is to identify, assess, and develop.

  A good starting point is a current and projected organizational chart, including key staff and their expected retirement dates.

  Identifying high potentials is not easy. Senior leaders and/or boards of directors must openly discuss people with the potential to become top leaders.

  Leaders also need to identify future business challenges and the necessary skill sets to establish competencies by which they can develop successors

  Sometimes there be identified more gaps than available people. In that case, there is the need to survey and gather intelligence on potential leaders outside the company while defining the advancements necessary within our own management ranks

  Employees identified as high potentials or top talent then should go through a series of formal assessments and performance feedback sessions. Everyone involved in the process then knows what skills need improvement, and can match those skills to the success factors identified as crucial to the continued growth of the company.

  A development plan is prepared and initiated, which could include training, coaching, and developmental assignments.

 

Remember that Succession Planning is not a one time program. It requires discipline and rigorous execution. It is also important to consider its breadth of scope Which positions should be included? Will you look internally or externally for the best candidates? You must also anticipate necessary resources and external support if needed.

 

What are the pros and cons of promoting from within the organization versus bringing in fresh talent from outside?

  External hiring is often costly

  Studies conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership have revealed that a mind-blowing 65% of senior managers recruited externally fail within the first two years.

 

What is the responsibility of the library s management to Succession Planning?

 

What are the other concepts/issues to be taken into consideration when talking about Succession Planning?

 

 

 

Margaret D. Rouse-Jones

June 25, 2007