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Every organization has ‘generations.’ I’m not just talking about family businesses.
The three generations to think about are:
Leaders –who are currently responsible for growing the company
Transitioners –senior leaders who are planning for retirement in the next few years – the transition from work to what I call the “Third Phase” of life.
Next Generation – people who are being groomed as potential future Leaders
All three generations have the same interests. In a word, they want their organization to be SUSTAINABLE. They want it to survive and prosper so their needs will be met.
They all want to build a strong organization that can survive and grow into the future – one that is:
- Well designed as an organization with ‘the right people in the right positions.’
- Financially strong so that is has ‘staying power’
- Continually searching for future markets and is in touch with the emerging needs of its (present and future) customers.
- Innovative – developing new products and services to satisfy those customer’s new needs.
Every organization needs to think in terms of transition, having people preparing to step up when the present leaders retire, get sick or die. All three generations want a viable transition program in place, albeit for different reasons.
- Leaders want to know that what they are building will endure – that their efforts are producing positive, lasting results. It’s in their self interest to develop a transition program in order to guarantee that their ‘legacy’ will live on.
- Transitioners want to see the organization continue after they move on. They want confidence that their successors have the passion and the competencies to continue to inject new ‘life blood’ into the organization to keep going. If they are also an owner, they have an extra incentive; they want to know that the company will continue to be profitable so they can ‘harvest their investment.’
- Next Generation members want to know that they ‘have a future here’ and that they can achieve their goals by making a commitment to stay with the organization.
Several decades ago, at my first management workshop, the instructor, Dorsey Hurst – the leading guru of management of design firms at the time – repeated his mantra several times a day: “Grow or spawn your own competition.” I understood him to be telling us to create opportunities for people to advance within the company or their best people will leave and start their own business – or go work for the competition.
Not all people want to be leaders or have the ability to lead. The challenge for the Leaders is to recruit and develop next generation people with leadership potential and create opportunities for them to achieve their aspirations within the company – or risk losing them.
For all this to work, Leaders have three responsibilities:
- Build a strong, sustainable organization that has ‘staying power’
- Develop a strong ‘Next Generation” of leaders
- Plan for their retirement and communicate that program to assure Next Generation members that a successful transition with take place.
When transition programs are in place, and being implemented, the special concerns of all three generations are being addressed. And everyone can have a high level of confidence that their interests are being dealt with.
Peter Wendel is President of Peter Wendel Group, an organizational consulting firm dedicated to building high performance organizations that are able to prosper and grow in these rapidly changing times by offering succession planning, strategic thinking, team building and leadership development services. He blends a passion for organizations and people with a lifetime of experience both as a business leader/manager and an accomplished consultant.
Email: pkwendel@aol.com
Company Profile: Peter Wendel Group
Company URL:
http://www.peterwendelgroup.com
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