Succession Planning can seem like a monumental task.

Most companies / owners don’t start because … where do you begin?

But, what if I told you that there are three easy ways to integrate Succession Planning into the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of your company so that it is accomplished organically?

Awesome, right?

Great! Let’s go!

[I will disclose one caveat: This approach does take a lot of forethought, but once you have the plan in place, it’s SOP!]

Here are the three ways to make Succession Planning Standard Operating Procedure:

1. Integrate into performance reviews

2. Marketing

3. Coaching and Mentoring

Let's start with SOP number one: integrate into performance reviews. I find that most managers do not actually know how to have the performance management conversation. More often than not, when managers are trained to conduct performance reviews, the focus is on the process.  They are taught to fill out forms, how to use the software, how to calculate raises, and we hammer them on getting things done on time, but we don't tell them how to actually conduct the conversation or how to make that conversation worthwhile. And we absolutely never instill in them the overarching belief that the purpose of performance reviews is for the long-term sustainability of the organization. People treat performance reviews like report cards: You got a B+ which earned you a 2% raise, and we'll see you next year!

Let’s fix that right now. Here are three questions that you can teach your managers to ask during performance reviews.

The first is, What do you love about your job? This question gets the employee to start thinking positively about the organization and their role. (I recently read something that said that most people do not understand how they contribute to their organization. Can you believe that? No wonder people leave their jobs. They feel no connection to the company.)

The second question would be, What would you like to learn to enhance your skills in your current job or to enhance your knowledge about the business in a broader sense?

And the third question is, What are your career goals for the next year? The next two years, five years from now? You're priming people to think, what do I contribute to this organization? And where could I go with that? What more would I like to learn? How can I expand my career right here where I already am?

This is step one in building your succession pipeline: Priming and enabling people to see a future with your company.

The second standard operating procedure is marketing.

Yes, you read that right. This marketing comes from senior leaders “down” to the rest of the organization.

The folks in your C-suite need to embrace that succession planning is a non-negotiable.  Even more important, they need to be champions of succession planning. They must evangelize to everybody, all of the time, that developing their leadership skills, their knowledge about the organization, and their knowledge about the industry and your business environment is standard operating procedure. Developing skilled, knowledgeable, capable future leaders is a long-term process. But, when you “bake it in” to work responsibilities, it’s not that hard.

The third SOP is to require your up-and-coming leaders to both coach and mentor younger leaders. One of the biggest barriers to succession planning is that people keep all their knowledge in their heads. We just do not have a culture of sharing knowledge and bringing others up within our organizations. But if you require it, if it is standard operating procedure, the process of succession planning is much easier because knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned are always being passed down to younger generations.

A design we frequently use is a three or four-year leadership skill development curriculum in which learners in years two, three, and four must coach peers one year “behind” them, and learners in years three and four must additionally mentor small cohorts of learners who are in years two and three.

So, by years three and four, you have up-and-coming leaders who can coach and give feedback to individuals and can also coach and mentor small groups. And that is 80% of leadership my friends!  Subtly and painlessly you have made knowledge sharing, learning, and coaching others standard operating procedure, which feeds into having capable and ready future leaders - and that's how to do succession planning effortlessly!

This article was originally published on LinkedIn