Succession Coaching
what is it, and how can it help me?

What is succession coaching?

Succession coaching is a service provided specifically for business leaders and the executives they are preparing to succeed them. It is designed to provide potential successors with a sounding board for their development and the opportunity to build their leadership skills in a highly focused way. The succession coaching relationship is a partnership between leader, successor-in-waiting and coach. The focus is both on the successor-in-waiting's individual needs as well as the needs and goals of the business.

Eoin McCarthy, succession coach, works with and supports successors-in-waiting to:

• Learn how to lead the business from the front
• Establish a strong base of relationships at the top of the business and with key outside stakeholders
• Identify and solve problems
• Set and achieve goals
• Make and take good decisions
• Identify business opportunities and deal with threats to realizing them

More about Eoin McCarthy

How does succession coaching support the successor-in-waiting in their own development?

The succession coach 'stays with' and supports the successor-in-waiting to:-

• Create and implement a personal and business plan
• Ccreate and maintain an integrity between personal and business life.
• Develop the skills they need to move the business forward.
• Keep themselves "forward focused" to take advantage of opportunities.
• Bring out the successor-in-waiting's personal best and hold their vision for the future of the business.

During the early time of transition, the successor-in-waiting can regularly turn to the skilled succession coach.   The succession coach provides a "still point" and confidant, enabling them to establish themselves as high performing leaders who will lead and develop the business in the way needed.

What are the outcomes and benefits of succession coaching?

• The successor-in-waiting achieves more sustainable results in less time:
• Succession coaching adds momentum and enables smarter, more effective actions to be taken with greater clarity:
• Succession coaching helps the successor-in-waiting to see clearly where they are, what the business needs, and what they want from their life and work, enabling them to align to their values
• Better decisions: succession coaching helps the successor-in-waiting see more of the options available, have new perspectives, think through the impact of decisions, and develop and sustain their commitment to the decisions they make.
• Stronger relationships: succession coaching improves the successor-in-waiting's relationships with others through helping them develop their interpersonal skills, discern others' agendas more clearly, and base their relationships on shared values.

How does succession coaching work?

1. Coach and leader meet and agree that succession coaching will be useful.
2. Succession coach, successor-in-waiting and leader meet together and agree the work to be done.
3. Succession coach and successor-in-waiting work together, meeting face-to-face and perhaps also in teleconference,  at 4-6 week intervals, using psychometric and other tools as needed. 
4. After the initial 6 months of support, if it is judged useful, the work may continue for a further defined period.

TCL Feb2010