Succession Planning

Working for the Long TermSuccess of Your Program

GOALS

Recognize the Obastacles to Succession Planning

Share Tools for Identifying and Training New Leaders

Create a Plan & Begin its Execution

Succession Planning: Preparing for New Leadership to Run the Program

BRAINSTORMING OBSTACLES TO SUCCESSION PLANNING

KEY CONCEPTS FOR THE DAY

LEADERSHIP

CLARITY

INTENTIONALITY

FOLLOW THROUGH

Motivation for this Work

• Our Faith• Religious, Humanist & Everything in between

• Benefits for Us• Learn a Skill• Gain Work Experience• Feels Good/Self Worth • Dream Job/ Passion

• Gift of the Opportunity• Gratitude/ Giving Back• Overcome Powerlessness/ owning our power

Knowing and Sharing Our Passion will Attract Others to Live Our

Their Passions

Preparing for the Future

* Clarity* Intentionality* Follow Through 

Pray/ Meditate/ Positive Thoughts

Your Work is Important, You want it to succeed

YOU MUST OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES

Prepare to Turn Things Over

List of things to do

Create Job Descriptions for the various positions, roles, tasks (ask folks to write their own)

Label everythingCheck Lists

tasks that get done regularly: keep one in a file and one that you write on as you find better ways of doing things or greater clarity in the steps required

Write down the instructions for how to do things if it is a process

Clean out, organize and label spacesKeep a Binder or File on the Computer (backed up) with

important notes about how to do things, deadlines, contacts: no matter how sloppy your notes seem it is better than no notes at all

Finding Prospects

Pluses and minuses of asking the same people over and over again

Get them to help you recruit others, meet with you to plan, help you prepare for change, check in for accountability, follow up & problem solving

Broaden Your Network MAPPING EXERCISE

Where do we Find New Volunteers?

Map your community, what organizations, businesses, institutions exist that might be interested in what you are doing?

Schedule a brief meeting with the community liaison, community affairs person at these organizations

Interview a person at church who you don’t know well

Go to schools and offer an opportunity for H.S. and College students to do an unpaid/ very part-time internship

Agenda

What do they do?

How do they do it?

Why do they do it?

What you do (making the connections along the way)?

Why you do it (making the connections along the way)?

You need: more clients, volunteers, exposure, money, participation, for them to come to an event a meeting

How can you support their work?

Leave them with a one page description of your program with key information: what, when, where, who (brochure? Business card?)

Working with New People

• Schedule them to come in and plan to spend some time providing an overview (15 minutes)

• Have them Shadow you, help you, do things with you: IF AT ALL POSSIBLE NEVER DO ANYTHING BY YOURSELF

• Ask them to write notes about what you did, how you did it (creating their own job description, check list, that can be worked on later, or can help to update the one you have in your file)

• Keep a Running List of Things that Need to be Done and ask for volunteers to do these one-time (or 2X) activities while you are in the office working on other things

• All the prepare to turn things over • Parts of the work you need done for a time

sensitive project or special event• Cleaning, labeling, organizing

You and Your ColleaguesCaring for your most important Resources

Taking care of your most important resource and tool: your relationships with others

• Remember to take care of yourself: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual

• Remember to thank people for the ways they support you• Verbal after a job done with specifics about why that

was so helpful• Thank you notes to community leaders that attended

your event• Thank you notes to funders (should arrive before the

check clears)

• Your Contacts: Make lists, update lists, annotate lists

CALL AND CHECK IN WITH PEOPLE WHEN YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING

• When hiring a new leader (your successor, the new director)

• Try to have some overlap time so they can see what you do first hand and get oriented in real time

• Take with you to meet key funders and collaborators

• Orient to the local leaders: organizational directors, politicians, social service agencies, government resource people

• Put together a cheat sheet of important deadlines, especially for funding

Planning

1-2 Things you are going to do that you have never done before (schedule them)

if you have enough time, do some planning about them: who do you want to go with you, what do you need to do to prepare, when can you do that?

Q & A, Announcements &