I often speak about how to conduct succession planning correctly, but recently I was asked to share the opposite - what might you do wrong to sink your succession planning? I didn't have an answer right away, but I've been mulling it over for a month or so now, and I've identified 6 things that can sink your succession planning.

❶ Your succession plan is not based on the future of the company

In other words, you shouldn’t be replacing like-with-like. Don’t look at today’s leaders and ask: Where else or who else can we find with these skills? Succession planning should be looking 5, 10, 15 years down the road. Be futuristic in your thinking and ask: Where will this company be in five years? Where will we be in 10 years? And don't just think about your company, your leaders, or your product or service…project what could change in consumer sentiment, what new government regulations might exist, what external conditions might be different when your current leaders will have retired. What skills will a future leader need?

❷ Not being transparent with potential leaders

Companies lose a lot of very talented mid-career individuals when they don't tell them they are in the leadership pipeline. I see it with clients all the time. They know where they think a certain person will be in three or five years, but they haven't told the individual.

When a talented individual feels that they’ve hit a plateau in their career, they start to think: I might as well look elsewhere to learn more, to be stimulated, to get that title I aspire to.

So be transparent with folks that you believe are on the leadership trajectory; of course, tell them Conditions might change, but we see you have leadership potential.

❸ Failing to develop breadth in people’s capabilities

We have a nation of people who are specialists. We've done a terrible job in corporate America of giving people well-rounded business knowledge. We've kept people in their professional silos (e.g. Enter in a finance role and all future development will only be in finance) for decades. As you're getting future leaders prepared, give them a wider lens into how the business works beyond what they do in their current role.

❹ Not looking to the second and third generation of future leaders

In other words, not developing depth. Remember, succession planning is future-focused. You want more than one “level” of leader in the pipeline. Who are you preparing now, for a leadership role 10 or 12 years from now?

❺ Not looking for outside leaders early enough

We have found, in the work that we do with our clients, that there often is not someone in the organization who is capable of being promoted in the next three to five years (see example, below) and the "solution" in the client's mind is, That's a problem for three years down the road.

It's not.

It's a problem for today.

If you identify that there is no one who could step in in an emergency - or even a planned exit, three years from now - you want to start looking for an outside person today because it takes them that long to acclimate, to emulate your culture, to really get a grasp on the long term vision and goals of the organization, and to forge all those internal relationships they need to be a productive leader.

Real World Example

We were working with a small senior leadership team of nine individuals. Each individual was tasked with suggesting who might replace them. One individual showed up on the list of three current leaders! Clearly, he would not replace them all. And when pressed, the leadership team was firm in their belief that no one else in the organization was capable of stepping up soon enough.

The company needed to look for outside leaders with the appropriate skills ASAP.

❻ Not revisiting the plan yearly

Too many organizations say, Great, we've got a succession plan. Let's put it on the shelf and when somebody leaves a position, we'll take it out and see who we chose.

Instead, you must revisit the plan yearly. Situations change, people change, people upgrade their capabilities, they become interested in something else... succession planning should be a constant conversation, just like performance reviews are a constant conversation you are having with people every year (hopefully more than that) about their career trajectory. Your senior leadership team should be having constant yearly conversations about who is in the pipeline and what positions might need to be filled.

Summary: Six ways that you can sync your succession plan:

1. You're looking to replace today's leaders with people who are just like them.

2. You are not transparent with the people that are in your succession pipeline.

3. You're not developing people's breadth of knowledge about how your organization runs.

4. You're not developing a succession plan with depth (looking ahead two or three generations).

5. You are waiting too late to bring in outside leaders to fill future vacancies.

6. You are not revisiting the succession plan yearly.

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.