How coaching can help your business’s succession planning

May 25

Succession planning has always been a vital consideration for businesses of any size. No matter how well your business is running now, if you’re not focused on nurturing and developing talent to replace leaders and key employees when they leave or transition to another role, it’s hard to be assured of a secure future for the business.

Why succession planning?

The changing labor market of the last few years arguably makes succession planning more important than ever. The Institute for Economic Equity estimates that there were 3.3 million more retirees in the US as of October 2021 than in January 2020, far outstripping demographic trends, with veteran workers making up the bulk.

A strong succession and talent development plan based on your business strategy is therefore crucial to ensuring your key roles are always filled by people up to the task.

What this means is investing time and resources in attracting and retaining the right talent, identifying the skills your organization possesses as well as those it lacks, and putting focus and effort into your team’s development, training and coaching.

The advantages of coaching

Leadership and organizational coaching can play a pivotal role in your succession planning by preparing your future leaders, and your team as a whole, to develop the skills and dynamics your business will require going forward.

It can help you address skill gaps and develop the strong leadership pipelines you need to ensure the success of future succession processes.

The financial and operational benefits of coaching for businesses are well documented. The International Coaching Federation found in a 2009 study that 86% of companies that could calculate a return on investment had made back their initial investment or more. Among these, the median ROI was 7x their investment, while around one in five reported an ROI of 50x.

The same study found that 80% of individuals who worked with coaches reported increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefited from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.

Data points to immediate benefits for your team members and your organization, but also to lasting, sustainable change and a higher likelihood of employees reaching their development goals and becoming the leaders and key players they need to become.

How can we help?

Grow Better Together can help make your transition planning as beneficial as possible through:

Consultation and guidance on creating a succession plan that works

We'll help you analyze your top strategic goals and the skills you'll need to achieve them. Then we'll work with you to identify the team members who best meet those skills and the development process that will best serve a seamless and productive succession.

Leadership and organizational coaching to support the changes

Leadership is a learned skill. Coaching is the perfect tool to prepare employees for the next step, helping them develop the skills they’ll need to hit the ground running in their new roles. Through coaching, we’ll also help you build a stronger, healthier team to support and bolster the transition.

And beyond that, we can:

Help you attract and retain the right talent

At the heart of developing the right leaders for succession is ensuring your company attracts and keeps hold of the talent it needs now and in the future. We’ll support you in your recruiting activities by devising and implementing the strategies that will help your company do just that, with equity, diversity and inclusion at the core of our solutions.

Support and guide those approaching retirement

Transitioning towards retirement after decades in a role or with a company is a major step. A specialized transition coach can support leaders through the process, helping them reflect on what lies ahead and preparing them for a smooth and fulfilling transition.

Who we are

Our team brings together decades of experience and complementary expertise, which allows us to provide solutions that address every angle of your succession planning needs.

Geneviève Retzlaff, PCC, CTPC

Genevieve’s expertise lies where humans and businesses meet. She has over 15 years of experience in the HR Business Partnering and Learning and Development fields and can support with leadership and team development, implementing your succession planning initiatives, leadership consulting, talent attraction and acquisition strategies.

Carmen Liefield, ACC, CTPC

A certified team performance and leadership coach and organizational development expert, Carmen brings with her a proven track record of successful succession planning and all the tools and experience needed for the best possible consultation on creating a succession plan to carry your business forward.

Markus Mitter

Markus is an experienced manager and consultant with a career in the Human Resources industry. With a professional focus on supporting businesses in transformation, his skills cover a range from organizational development and succession planning to the design and implementation of job architecture and compensation structures.

Gérard Théorêt

As a transition coach, Gerard combines wide experience, empathy and intuition to explore the best ways to repurpose talents and life experience as individuals move from one fulfilling chapter of their life and career to another.

Jennifer Guerette

As an experienced Talent Acquisition Specialist, Jennifer supports you in your sourcing and recruiting activities to help you form the right teams. Always having talent retention at the forefront of her selection process, Jennifer ensures candidates not only tick the requirement boxes, but find the talent that will fit and complement your team dynamic.