Succession Planning: Identify & Develop Future Leaders

Create practical succession plans: critical roles, HiPos, development, emergency coverage, and leadership pipelines

What you’ll learn
Identify critical roles using impact/risk and business continuity needs
Create success profiles and competency models aligned to strategy and culture
Assess performance vs potential using nine-box, talent reviews, and calibration
Build development plans (70-20-10) to move successors from “ready later” to “ready now”
Design emergency succession coverage, interim leadership, and knowledge transfer plans
Use HR tech, analytics, and AI to improve visibility while reducing bias and risk
Implement governance, communication, and review cadence to keep plans current
Build an inclusive succession pipeline using fair criteria, sponsorship, and metrics

Requirements
There are no prerequisites for this course

Description
If a key leader resigned tomorrow, would you know exactly who steps in—and whether they’re ready? Most organizations can’t answer that with confidence. Even though leaders widely agree succession planning is urgent, many companies still rely on informal “replacement” decisions, tribal knowledge, and last-minute external hires.

The cost is real: leadership gaps stall execution, institutional knowledge walks out the door, and rushed transitions damage morale and performance. The upside is just as real: organizations that build strong internal pipelines move faster, retain top talent, and turn leadership changes into smooth handoffs instead of disruptions.

This course teaches you how to build a practical, repeatable succession planning process—one you can start small with and scale across your organization.

In this course, you’ll learn how to

• Make the business case for succession planning and secure leadership buy-in

• Identify mission-critical roles (beyond the C-suite) using impact and risk

• Define success profiles and competency models aligned to strategy and culture

• Spot high-potential talent using structured methods (nine-box, talent reviews)

• Assess readiness with tools like 360 feedback, simulations, and calibration

• Build development plans using the 70-20-10 model (stretch, mentoring, training)

• Implement governance, documentation, and communication that keep plans “alive”

• Create emergency and contingency coverage to reduce single points of failure

• Leverage HR tech, analytics, and AI responsibly—without outsourcing judgment

• Build an inclusive pipeline by reducing bias, widening access, and tracking metrics

You’ll also learn from real-world examples, including how McDonald’s navigated back-to-back CEO transitions through bench strength, plus lessons drawn from organizations using structured talent systems to maintain continuity.

By the end, you’ll be able to draft a succession plan for your most critical roles, evaluate successor readiness, launch targeted development, and establish a rhythm of review—so leadership transitions don’t derail your strategy.

Whether you’re building succession planning from scratch or strengthening an existing approach, this course gives you the frameworks, tools, and best practices to create a future-ready leadership pipeline.

Who this course is for
HR professionals (HRBP, HR generalists, HR managers)
Talent management and leadership development specialists
People managers and department/team leaders
Directors, VPs, and executives responsible for bench strength
Business owners and founders scaling leadership capacity
Operations leaders in roles vulnerable to single points of failure
DEI leaders partnering on equitable advancement and pipeline goals
Anyone involved in workforce planning, risk management, or business continuity