Best practices for succession planning. It is not too soon start.
Succession planning can help position you and your ministry for leadership changes.
It is not too soon to start planning.
Succeeding in succession starts long before a change in leadership.
It is an intentional activity that prioritizes the health of your ministry. Effectively employed, it can help you mature to become who God is shaping you to be and to accomplish what God has called you to do.
These practices have helped leaders plan and prepare well ahead of changes in leadership.
While your planning will differ from other succession plans, I want to encourage you to consider the following best practices. These practices have helped leaders plan and prepare well ahead of changes in leadership:
Develop a leadership pipeline in the ministry. Do you have a way of identifying the emerging and maturing leaders in your ministry? How can you invest in the leadership development of these leaders? What role can denominational affiliations or associations play in developing these leaders?
Prioritize the advancement of mission throughout the process. Is there sufficient clarity in your ministry surrounding mission, vision, values, convictions, and commitments? Are the key stakeholders in agreement with the mission, vision, values, convictions, and commitments?
Discuss succession openly with your board. Succession discussions must be ongoing discussions. It is not too soon to start talking about succession. Is your relationship with the board healthy enough to start a conversation about the stewardship of leadership? Succession planning requires healthy relationships.
Clarify your role in the process. What are your expectations? What are the board’s expectations? How can the board prepare for succession ahead of time? Will you help lead any part of the process? Will you function in any other way, e.g., does the board want you to act as an advisor throughout the process?
Commit to open, honest communication. You and each member of the board need to be aware of how the process is going (each step along the way). Take time to define how will communication happen and who will be responsible to make sure that it is happening.
An on-demand video series on how succession planning can help ministries advance their mission.
Succeeding In Succession is an on-demand video series on how succession planning can help ministries advance their mission. This series is designed to help leaders and ministries sustain organizational health even as they experience a leadership change.
Everything you need for this series is right here.
There are 10 sessions, plus 5 additional bonus sessions. Each session has its own set of presentation slides and an accompanying handout. Together these act as an interactive learning experience.
You can choose to work through this series over time taking one session at a time or bundle all the sessions together at once for a team retreat or simply pick and choose sessions that will be most helpful for you. The best approach will best fit your context.