Davies Ndumiso Sibanda, Labour Matters
ONE of the most difficult times for organisations if not well managed is the period when a Chief Executive is heading for retirement and his or her subordinates are positioning themselves to take over.

Where the succession is not well managed by the Board, senior managers eyeing the position engage in mutual battles that are not good for productivity and good men and women are forced out of the organisation by the ruthless ones.

When John, the CEO of organization X was a year from retirement, tensions started to rise among senior managers and a few middle managers who thought they also had a chance of moving up once their bosses were elevated to senior positions.

Marketing team ganged around their boss and pushed for his rise while painting production, finance and engineering guys as the stumbling block in meeting organization’s targets. Other department heads did not take the criticism lying down, they exposed what they thought were bad decisions from marketing that had resulted in the organisation producing non-sellable products. The accusations became worse in the last six months before the CEO’s retirement.

Some senior managers wrote an anonymous letter to the Board alleging corruption and inefficiencies among senior colleagues. The Board also got divided on who to support and who was telling the truth. Two senior managers ended up in the police cells over crimes they did not commit. The fighting was brutal pushing the finance manager to put in her resignation after spending a night in police cells on false allegations.

When consultants were called in by the Board to assist stabilise the organisation, they established that the source of the problem were succession battles, which had to be put to an end quickly. The finance manager who had put in her resignation letter was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer designate and two senior managers who had fought a bruising battle with her were retrenched to remove a toxic environment. The organisation then started to stabilise and move on.

The above case briefly shows how important it is to manage succession if the organisation is to remain stable. Way before the CEO’s retirement, candidates for succession must be groomed and the organisation must avoid anointing “heirs” as that also has serious problems related to the “heirs” starting to eliminate all who could stand in the way and eliminating good workers while starting to build own empire with friends and those seen loyal to the “heir”.

In conclusion, succession planning must be professionally handled to minimise the challenge of power struggles as people position themselves to get to the top.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: email:[email protected]