Assignment Cover Sheet

Student Name: Rabi Adhikari

Student Number: 65208
Course: Diploma in Leadership & Management
Assignment No: 4

Marking Criteria:

We expect the learners to write minimum one well expressed point in three lines against each
allocated mark. This means one needs to write 15 lines with 5 well expressed points to get high
grades for a 5 marks question.

For high grades use examples and illustrations where appropriate.

Please insert your completed assignment (in word format) here:

Q.1)
I. Succession planning is a focused operation of recognizing and developing future
leaders and managers, and individuals to fulfill business-critical positions. It means
that if anyone leaves a company, there is a right person in place to take and fill the
role/position. There are various terms interconnected with succession planning which
are training, development, career planning, career management, replacement
planning and succession planning.
II) The attributes of a succession planning are: - A mission statement which is
supported by defined set of values and visions, and a dedicated team who are
accountable for planning, designing, implementing and follow- up. Although different
companies have different approach to succession planning, the core elements are
identifying key positions for which succession plan is needed, identifying the
successor, recognizing job requirements, building capabilities, and assessing
progress.
III) Senior level management must support and endorse the succession planning
process. The reason is being is not just because senior managers / CEO are critical
employees but because when higher management is involved, the process becomes
clear, comprehensive, and embraced. For example, during succession planning it
can trigger paranoia from staffs reading signals incorrectly, and this can fail the
company effectiveness in the process, and if senior management involvement is
there, this will clear the confusion as everyone will know what’s going on.
IV) There are layers of complexity involved in succession planning process. It is
important to know what information is needed and where to get it from and what
tools/methods need to be used to get that information. Deciding who to promote or
keep a place for the succession is one of the challenge and complexity involved.
Another complexity is resisting bias. The persuasion to hire someone who fits a
certain stereotype can outweigh logical, skill-based thought process. Another
challenge is to be able to maintain the morale in the company. Succession can have
negative impact on an organization’s morale due to the tension and worries growing
in an employee’s mind. Hence in a company, succession planning should be simple
and open and should be discussed openly and who is going to be the next
successor.
V) Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a joint search for the best in people, their
organizations, and the world around them. AI is based on finding out what is working,
what gives life, what is creating excitement and energy and determining how to
create more of it. The 4Ds involved in this Inquiry will be described below.
First one is discovery. This is the first stage and work, and efforts are focused on
finding out current positives and strengths, looking at best of what is. Choosing the
positive is the focus of this stage of inquiry. Second one is dream. This phase
involves using the findings from discovery phase and creating a compelling and
ambitious picture of what the desired future is going to look like. The third one is
design. Here, the idea is to turn this speculation into reality. What work need to be
done to take us from present state to the vision generated in the dream phase,
determining what should be. The final phase is destiny. This is when we move
towards progress and make the desired state a reality. Determining what will be and
finding innovative ways to create that future will be the key.
VI) Evaluation is necessary for a succession plan because it is the only way to find
out if you are on the right direction / track. If evaluation is not carried out, a company
potentially won’t be able to validate the worthiness of the succession planning
process leading the process to fail and costing lots of financial loss to the company.
Also correct evaluation helps a company cut cost, for example the costs and hours
saved in identifying internal talent, compared to time and money spend on an
external search.

Q.2) Every organization have different style of succession planning process and
models. We will be discussing about SUCCESS model briefly below. There are
various steps involved in this model. Succession planning system is the first one
which means basically designing a system, finding, and determining the resources,
and then setting up progression pathways. This leads to the second step which is
understanding your resources. Here key succession positions are identified, the
environment will be analyzed, and individual engagement plans will be discussed
and established. Third one is creating risk assessments. This is the process where
analysis of risk within that certain company is done via professionals who are
qualified to carry risk assessment taskings. Then an action plan is produced which
basically outlines what the plan is for that succession process, what to do and how to
do, what if and what counter measures are in place. Then that plan evaluation takes
place because successful process always needs good evaluation to foresee the
success of that plan, will it work or not, what needs to change if there is a need for
and what financial contributions need to be made, and is it worth it or not. After that
that plan needs to be set in action and with a smooth motion and leadership, this is
possible. Finally selling the plan and creating reinforcement is necessary, and this
can be accomplished by celebrating the success with the team and continually
reminding the members of the succession team and the board of its value.

Q.3) There are various steps involved in identifying resources during a succession
planning. The first step is identifying the system itself which has three components.
They are: - identifying the important people for the succession plan, developing
progression procedures and get the top-level support involved. After that we need to
identify key areas and positions that are crucial to the organization’s operation and
strategic objectives. Then we need to determine the capabilities for key areas and
positions/roles identified in the previous step. This can be done by identifying the
relevant knowledge, skills and abilities needed to achieve that business goal, and
informing the employees about key areas and positions. Then after that we need to
establish who is interested and who has the potential to fill that job role / position.
This can be achieved by discussing career plans with employees and identifying the
key areas and positions that are vulnerable. After this, we need to incorporate
strategies for learning, training, development, and transfer of knowledge into our
succession planning and management. Finally, there needs to be an evaluation and
monitor the succession planning and management efforts to make sure succession
plans are developed for all key areas and positions. Also making sure key positions
are filled quickly and the new successor in new position are performing effectively.

Q.4) Individualized engagement plans are set of action plans and process that a
company must come up with to recognize and prioritize their actions and equally be
able to identify simple and quick changes to show to its staff that the company is
determined to set in an action plan on receiving any form of feedback about levels of
employee engagement within the company. These engagement plans are directly
connected with succession planning because it is all about having the right person in
the right job at the right time. Individualized, as the word itself refers to knowing the
person individually, hence, to have the right people in right place we need to be
involved in their development and know what their passions are and what makes
them clack. These individualized engagement plans are quite important in
succession planning process. Whoever is identified as an important link or a
potential leader during a succession planning should have the individualized
engagement plan also called IEP. This IEP is formulated by consulting the staff and
the leader, and this includes career plan for that specific individual and
developmental needs. There are steps involved in creating IEP and the following
should be considered while carrying out IEP. One should ask and identify: - what
areas of improvement will be achieved in the strategic gains in the levels of
employee engagement, do any areas of improvement already supports / overlaps
with current strategic direction, what sort of fund is the company looking to invest on
these plans and is the company ready to provide what it’s promising. There are
different ways to create a successful IEP. First thing first, one must be strategic. We
need to integrate IEP with the company’s other plans and strategies and
communication with the employees is the key. Sending out surveys in fixed time
intervals to establish and collect meaningful insights from the employees to make
informed and right decisions. And lastly, we shouldn’t give up or stop if we don’t
achieve the desired results in the first time. Factors like new employees, changing
leadership style could be the contributing factors to affect and change the employee
engagement levels within a company. A well-planned IEP has benefits too. It leads
to better productivity within the workplace, a well invested employees yields to more
productivity and effectiveness within a company. This in return helps the company,
but at the same time makes the employee have a job satisfaction. This leads to
internal marketing advantages for the business. Also, this is an era of digital world
and social media, so one bad words can ruin a business and it’s reputation. So, if an
employee is satisfied, it’s a win-win situation. And finally, if there is higher employee
satisfaction rate, naturally staffs are likely to stay in the company longer and stay
loyal. So, companies with good IEP have lower attrition rates, which will certainly
place the company in a higher rank in this competitive market.

Q.5) For any organization, evaluation of plans is important, and this includes
evaluation of succession plan as well. Evaluating a plan/program is the only way to
know if the plan/program is on the right track. For a survival of the succession plan,
there is a necessity to validate the worthiness of the plan/program and evaluation is
the best way to do it. There are six steps involved in the evaluation process of a
succession planning. First step is arranging meetings for the actual evaluation plan.
Here, the committee or the board who are selected for that very task meet for the
sole purpose of the program evaluation. After that, the members who are involved in
the evaluation process are briefed by the head / whoever is leading the evaluation. In
this step, attention to details is important and it is very important to highlight what is
going to happen and what is needed from the committee members for the success of
the evaluation and what is the need for the evaluation and what steps are going to
follow. After this, the third step is that the result data is presented to the committee.
In this step, it is vital to make sure you have access to what information you require
and that the committee/board members find the most useful ones. To efficiently get
the information for the board members, leaders can deploy techniques like web
forum and quick questionnaires to collect information. Fourth step is where analysis
of the program is performed. The results of the program are analyzed, studied, if
there is place for improvement then that will be recommended, and the evaluation
results will be recorded / documented. Fifth step is where the results are shared.
This is to be shared with people who are responsible for the succession planning.
Focus should be placed to share the results that identify specific goals and targets
for improvement. Finally, the last step is to sustain the program. This can be
achieved by ongoing training, management and by sharing appropriate information
with the stakeholders.

Student Statement:

By submitting this assignment, I confirm that this is my own work.

Student Signature: Rabi Adhikari Date: 20/04/2022

For Tutor / Assessor Use Only

Total Marks
Marks Obtained
Percentage / Grade