Guaranteed Pass Solutions 2026
Updated.
Succession planning - Answer -useful for managerial positions (CEO, COO etc)
-prepares single designated successor
-proactive approach to ensuring continuity of leadership
Career planning - Answer -succession plans for middle managers
-focuses on many particular individuals
-prepares several candidates for a position
Senior organization leaders - Answer Expected to retire over 5 to 10 years
Organizations without succession plans - Answer Uneasiness is intensified and negatively
affect performance
Leaving development of future leaders to chance
CEO is responsible for - Answer Initiating succession planning
Organizations with succession plans - Answer More likely to have smoother leadership
transition
Board of directors is responsible for - Answer Appointing a successor
Succession planning should begin - Answer 4 years prior to CEO leaving
HR responsibility - Answer Managing succession planning process
Succession planning saves organizations - Answer -Money
-Executive search fees eliminated
-Maintains leadership continuity when inside person is promoted
Grooming an internal person - Answer -key element of for-profit succession planning
,Hiring outside of an organization - Answer -requires 6-12 months before financial
performance regains the level that existed prior to replacement
5 principles to succession planning - Answer -board driven, collaborative process
-governing boards 2 or 3 most important task*
-communicate openly between board and ceo
-agreements made must be communicated to succeeding board leadership and must be
honored
-governing board has final say
A continuous process - Answer -succession planning must be continuous
-successor should always be available
-significant development assignments can be arranged to ensure appropriate experiences are
encountered
Feedback loops - Answer Are critical in succession planning
Goals and timelines - Answer -created and monitored
-important for transition
-a clear exit strategy prepared for outgoing CEO
-post succession assessment to evaluate process
-HR should review effectiveness to improve process
Succession planning should begin early - Answer -for developmental assessments
-provide insight and allow skills to be acquired
-developmental tasks should be diverse to expose to departments/operations
-institutional memory preserved
-CEO personally experienced being groomed support process
Potential pitfalls - Answer -connections to social network and psychological ties to
organization that complicate effort to change
-inappropriate or limited experience
CEO/ Management team damaged - Answer -only bringing in an entire new regime can
sweep organization clean
-organization will be taking a fall anyway
,-comes out of scandal, mismanagement, failed takeover
Organizations May inventory potential employees - Answer Often called assessing their
inside bench strength
If no suitable candidates - Answer -based on skills and ability
-consider hiring outside person at least 18months and up to 5years in advance
Succession planning can become costly - Answer -Due to expense of maintaining 2
individuals with high salaries over time
CEO must be mature - Answer -May feel threatened by trained successor standing in wings,
poised to takeover at a misstep at the whim of board of directors
Why organizations have not created succession plans - Answer -require time and thought
-not a daunting task
-governing boards often lack experience with planning
-Fail to see how it benefits organization
Organizations without plans - Answer Complain of being swamped by more immediate and
pressing issues
Leadership is - Answer Critical for long term effectiveness of contemporary organizations
CEO and governing Boards - Answer Must understand succession plans are essential strategic
goal important for continuous success of organization
Myths - Answer -boards believe succession planning hastens CEO departure.
-CEOs fear they will lose power and become lameduck leaders.
-perception could be strengthened if succession plan names next leader.
-CEOs fear if they talk about leadership change, the board will think they are planning to leave.
-boards don't want to talk about planning to imply they lost confidence in CEO
Outside hiring if CEO - Answer -risky and expensive
-excessive reliance on recruiting outside can stifle promising inside candidates
, Barriers to succession planning - Answer -Composed of self imposed fears and concerns
-HR can mitigate fears by providing more knowledge about the practice of succession planning
Survey of 2,500 largest public companies - Answer Those that found themselves scrambling
to find replacement for departing CEO lost on average 1.8 billion in share holder value during
the year following CEO departure
Statistics show 15% of large companies - Answer Will be in search of a ceo this year and only
half have designated successors/succession plans
Statistics show 30% to 50% of new CEOs - Answer Fail within first 15 months of the job
These CEOs are not prepared or groomed to succeed
New employees - Answer Justified and approved by senior manager coo cfo etc
Provides approved personnel requisition to hr
After approval, HR will - Answer Review position description
Check references
Verify education
Procure candidates (about 5)
Managers interview candidates - Answer -Use standardized list of questions
-Discussion of position organization and benefits
-Avoid discussing compensation(range is okay)
-Create list of acceptable candidates
HR is familiar with - Answer All applicable laws
Responding to references - Answer -by hr
-should not contain any subjective statements
-answered impersonally and directly from records
Information that is not in an employee file - Answer Does not exist. Nothing is off employee
record