A succession plan is not a list of names in a confidential spreadsheet. It is a test of whether the organisation can continue to make sound decisions, serve customers and manage risk when key people are unavailable.
Many businesses can identify a possible successor for a senior role. Fewer can demonstrate that the individual is ready to assume the responsibility without creating a new vulnerability elsewhere. A high-performing functional specialist, for example, may have the technical knowledge required for a leadership position, but may not yet have experience managing competing priorities, leading through uncertainty or making decisions with wider commercial consequences.
This is where succession planning often becomes misleading. Identifying potential is important, but potential is not the same as readiness. Readiness requires evidence: exposure to the right situations, demonstrated judgement, the ability to work across functions and sufficient confidence from those who will need to rely on that person.
It also requires organisations to examine whether knowledge and responsibility are too concentrated in a small number of people. If a successor needs months of informal handover before they can operate effectively, the business may have a continuity risk rather than a succession plan.
A stronger approach is to treat succession as an ongoing development and resilience process. Give prospective successors meaningful opportunities to lead projects, represent the business in key conversations, make decisions with appropriate support and learn from outcomes. Then assess what they can do, not simply what role they may be expected to fill.
Readiness is one of the dimensions Awarditor considers through its People Resilience Index. It helps organisations look beyond job titles and organisational charts to understand whether capability is genuinely prepared to carry critical responsibilities.
The question is not who could replace your leaders one day. It is who could lead effectively if that day arrived unexpectedly.