Part of the talent strategy cluster. This is educational, operational guidance that connects to the wider site — the employee lifecycle, employer operations, metrics and templates.
Adapt it to your strategy, capability needs and context.
Why it matters
At the executive level, building the pipeline of future leaders decides whether the business has the people it needs to deliver. A clear strategy turns capability needs into priorities and programs, instead of reacting role-by-role.
Strategy connects capability to outcomes.
Key concepts
- Successors for key leadership roles.
- Readiness pathways.
- Reduced key-person risk.
- A diverse pipeline.
Operational framework
- Set the strategic objectives and target capabilities.
- Map current vs needed capability.
- Design the programs and priorities to close the gap.
- Connect to workforce planning and the lifecycle.
- Govern, measure and report on a cadence.
Workforce considerations
- Which roles need a pipeline.
- How readiness is built.
- How succession reduces risk.
- How the pipeline is reviewed.
Common challenges
- No successors for key roles.
- Thin or undeveloped pipeline.
- Concentration risk.
- No readiness review.
Best practices
- Map critical roles and successors.
- Build readiness pathways.
- Reduce concentration.
- Review readiness.
Common mistakes
- No succession.
- No development.
- Concentration ignored.
- No review.
Measure this with the workforce planning metrics metric, put it into practice with the workforce planning template, and run it as a system via succession planning.
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