The Importance of Succession Planning for your Business

Succession Planning doesn’t just happen. While a crucial part of the future for any firm, it is often an unpopular topic.

I’m working with an incredible organization in St Louis that makes me believe in the positive things that forward thinking leadership teams can do for their companies. This firm, Alberici Construction, has been around for a long time but their group of leaders is not content to rest on their current successes. They are taking active steps to identify and train their next generation of leaders, looking two, five and 15 years into the future.  In thinking about how they develop leaders, train them, and mentor them, Alberici is charting the course to maintain its values as it adapts to a changing world.

It’s refreshing to see a group of busy managers pause to reflect on not what they want their firm to do for them, but rather on the future company that few of them will still be around to enjoy.

What is particularly impressive about this firm, is that every single one of their leaders - from the President of the company to the CFO and the market leads - is participating as a training developer and as a trainer/coach in this program. Not a single one of them is bowing out.

Each leader is actively excited about being a part of the leadership development team. No executive is too busy or too important.  This is clearly a team that “gets it.” They get that their primary job as leaders is to develop the next generation of employees to be better skilled and better prepared for an uncertain future. I’m feeling truly honored to be part of this team and learning many lessons about getting ready for the future right now. 

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Meg Winch, President

Meg specializes in the facilitation and training of communication and organizational skills, working with project team members to enhance the communication behaviors critical to their jobs.  She is a trained facilitator of formal partnering and public involvement processes.  She regularly works with teams to develop presentations, manage messages, and develop communication strategies and agreements. Meg also works with both public and private sector clients to develop comprehensive programs of both qualitative and quantitative research.