Succession: Preparing for Your Company’s Future—Without You

Team Bridge
Nov 5
6 min read

Tim Emmitt and Lisa Cooper

Executive Summary

Many family business owners delay succession planning, assuming there’s plenty of time. But what if tomorrow you weren’t there? Could your company thrive without you? How will you ensure the legacy you worked so hard to build will continue?

This article outlines practical steps to prepare your family business for one of the most challenging issues an entrepreneur will face - leadership succession. It introduces core elements of an assessment-based approach to evaluate successor readiness to help secure your company’s legacy for generations to come.

Life Happens

We can tell many stories about business owners spending decades building thriving companies, only to be suddenly interrupted by an unexpected, and sometimes unfortunate, event.

So, it begs the questions: Without you, what is the future of your business? Is your next leader prepared?

The Odds

Research shows that only one in three family businesses successfully transitions to the second generation - and by most accounts relatively few survive through the third, or beyond. To avoid this, a comprehensive process for preparing next leader(s) is recommended.

Improving Your Odds

The succession process must be structured, objective, and data-driven, not based on intuition, emotion, or birth order. A transparent and thorough process builds confidence not only within ownership, but also among employees and the company’s extended enterprise.

Furthermore, an under-prepared leader can jeopardize the stability of the business. The key steps of a well-executed succession plan include:

a. Assess the candidate’s skills/experiences

b. Assemble and execute a development plan

c. Measure and monitor progress

Assess the Candidate’s Skills/Experiences

In family businesses, there's often an implicit expectation that a family member will assume leadership. However, lineage doesn’t guarantee leadership capability and potential does not equal performance.

In assessing candidates, we utilize a combination of tools to evaluate leadership capability, temperament, and readiness:

Competency, Behavioral & Psychometric Assessments. To help avoid bias, misalignment, and potentially a failed transition we use validated tool(s) to provide objective data. There are many assessment tools that can be valuable in the succession process. But which tool (or tools) to use is situation dependent upon certain factors. Some of the best tools include, but are not limited to (descriptions available in the appendix) :
- Predictive Index
- DiSC
- The LEA 360™ (Leadership Effectiveness Analysis 360)
- Myers-Briggs or MBTI
- Working Genius
Succession Preparation Assessment– The above tools can be valuable, however, for succession planning, we like to start with one of our practical tools we call the “Succession Preparation Assessment” which we assembled in conjunction with the Family Business Alliance. This is a 15-question survey which identifies key gaps quickly. The tool provides guidance to next steps which often include additional training, on job experience, coaching/mentoring, and/or one or more generic behavior & psychometric assessment tools.
This proprietary tool helps identify gaps against 15 core leadership competencies correlated with successful leadership transitions. We have a structured process where the survey is completed by the candidate, the leadership team, colleagues/coworkers and, as appropriate, others who can provide insights into the candidate’s strengths and opportunities for growth.

We have included a redacted visual of the Succession Preparation Assessment tool in the Appendix. This template assesses at a high-level, three key areas of candidate readiness:

o Foundations of Leadership

o Financials and Performance Measurement

o Managing the Business

*Note: An unredacted version of the Succession Preparation Assessment tool is available to download HERE.

Assemble and Execute a Development Plan

Once the candidate’s assessment(s) have been completed and you’ve identified competency gaps, a competency/skill gap analysis and identified areas of development, the next step is to create a custom plan to address any critical gaps. No two candidates are the same and no two plans are the same. Plans are specific to each business, role, and individual.

Creating a robust leadership development plan requires multi-stakeholder involvement to ensure it is aligned with business needs, family expectations, and personal growth for the successor. Comprehensive plans often include:

Rotational and stretch assignments across the business to build holistic understanding. Don’t underestimate global assignments or cross-cultural training. Think of project opportunities, not necessarily just the role of their current position. In a recent example, one of our recent development candidates, as part of their plan, was given a project to lead implementation of a new ERP system. This system affects virtually every function in the company, enabling the candidate to learn about other areas and gain a broader and higher-level view of the entire company.
Mentorship and coaching from internal and external leaders. Mentors can include legacy leaders, HR consultants, board members, and transition consultants. Candidates need to have a confidant - someone they respect and trust. There needs to be at least one outside resource to help the candidate with issues they might not be comfortable discussing with internal parties.
Formal learning through programs, certifications, seminars, executive forums, or peer groups (e.g., Family Business Alliance peer groups, YPO, and Vistage).
Networking and client engagement with clients, industry influencers, key vendors. The candidate can benefit from deepening relationships with those who have impact on the business.

Measure & Monitor Progress

Treat the succession plan as a strategic business objective—with regular reviews, measures, milestones, timelines, and SMART goals. Establish regular check-ins and ongoing feedback loops to ensure development stays on track. Constructive feedback, when delivered well, accelerates growth and builds leadership maturity.

Schedule Regular Meetings: To ensure discipline and accountability, establish a consistent cadence of reflection, reporting, feedback, and when needed correction.
Personal Journal or Dashboard: Encourage candidates to log learnings, challenges, metrics, and wins - both quantitative and qualitative. This builds self-awareness, enhances accountability and provides discussion topics for coaching sessions.
Real-time Feedback: A regular cadence of coaching and check ins can be one of the most effective ways to celebrate progress and course correct where needed.
360° Quarterly Reviews: This is one of the most challenging aspects of succession. We can naturally be fearful of hurting feelings so we try to shield successors from constructive feedback which can sometimes come across as a personal attack. Giving constructive feedback, when done properly, is a great gift.

Conclusion

If you take away nothing else from this article, please stop delaying your succession planning! Your company’s legacy and your family’s future for generations might well depend upon it.

We provided a systematic outline for preparing a succession candidate. We introduced core elements of a well-organized, assessment-based approach to assess a candidate’s skills/experiences, assemble and execute a development plan and measure and monitor progress.

Finally, while you could probably do some of this preparation on your own, we strongly encourage you to obtain independent views and expert guidance from partners who have extensive experience with the processes contained herein. If we can help you, we would welcome an exploratory conversation (contact info below).

About Bridge Leadership Solutions, LLC

“We hired Bridge Leadership Solutions (BLS) to ensure the first generation (4 family members in our company) is, over time, prepared to assume a key leadership role. Bridge Leadership Solutions worked with the candidate and the leadership team to assess skills/experiences and identify gaps. From the assessment and initial plan, we were able to develop and execute plans to seamlessly onboard the candidate to the company and initiate the process of developing and transferring responsibilities to the candidate. We wanted to make sure we were thoughtful and deliberate about bringing the next generation into the company and Bridge Leadership Solutions did a great job helping us do that!”

Bridge Leadership Solutions exists to provide outstanding advisory services to owners and senior executives of family and privately held businesses in West Michigan and beyond.

Tim Emmitt

Co-Founder and Partner

E: TEmmitt@BridgeExecs.com C/T: 248.807.1164 | W: www.BridgeExecs.com

About Cooper People Group, LLC

“Running a small business has it’s HR challenges, but working with CPG to hire key roles and mitigate the potential risks of going at it alone. Lisa took the time to learn about our company. Highly recommend Lisa and her team!”

Cooper People Group exists to strengthen the people component of business and support organizations with no HR, HR in transition or HR needing extra support including organizational design, talent management, leadership development, compensation plan design and overall people and HR strategy.

Lisa Cooper, PHR, SHRM-CP

Founder & Chief People Officer

E: lisa@cooperpg.com C/T: 616.227.0636 | W: www.cooperpg.com

Appendix

Predictive Index explores the underlying drives and needs that cause behaviors and will identify a Behavioral Pattern that predicts how someone will lead, communicate, and make decisions.
DiSC is a behavioral profiling tool that helps individuals and organizations understand how people approach work, communication, and problem-solving
The LEA 360™ (Leadership Effectiveness Analysis 360) is quite different from DISC or the Predictive Index. While DISC and PI focus on personality and behavior patterns, the LEA 360 is a multi-rater feedback assessment designed to evaluate actual leadership practices and effectiveness from multiple perspectives (self, manager, peers, and direct reports).
Myers-Briggs or MBTI focuses on psychological type - how people naturally prefer to think, decide, and interact with the world.
Working Genius focuses on how people find joy and energy in work - and where they naturally struggle.