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July 1, 2025 17 mins

Imagine an important person is missing from your team by tomorrow. Most teams, most organisations, most companies do not have a system for succession planning in place. They hope for the best without sustainable concepts when someone suddenly becomes unavailable. How can succession planning be approached sustainably and professionally?

Niels Brabandt discusses the issue in this week's episode.

Host: Niels Brabandt / NB@NB-Networks.com

Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielsbrabandt/

Leadership Letter: https://expert.nb-networks.com/

 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Niels Brabandt (00:02):
And suddenly she was gone.
Anna Wintour says goodbye to Vogue.
And if you don't know what Vogue is, and believe me, I am not, as you see, this is not a fashion
podcast, obviously, and not a fashion video cast.
If you're looking on YouTube or watching on YouTube right now, Anna Winter at Vogue magazine says goodbye.
After 37 years in charge as the editor in chief, she made it from just a fashion magazine to

(00:25):
the wording the world leading fashion fashion magazine. And now she's leaving.
The question is, when you now say one of your most significant figures, one of your most important
employees, one person you really need in your business, your organisation, when that person
says, I think I'm moving on, what happens to your business, to your organisation, to anything you do?

(00:46):
And that's exactly what we're going to talk about today. Succession planning is crucial.
However, most companies, most organisation practise what we call hope.
They simply say, hopefully no one gets sick, hopefully no one leaves, hopefully this is all
going to be somehow okay.
And if not, hopefully we will figure out on the way how we solve it.
And that of course is not a sustainable principle.

(01:07):
Our topic of today is succession planning.
When we talk about succession planning, there's a lot of pseudo science out there where people
say, oh, people really like the change, or people say, you will always figure out how it goes,
especially when you have regulation on your market and suddenly there is no one.
I can tell you the regulator will not be happy with you.
And especially when you have to file different things then especially when material is suddenly

(01:32):
missing due to a lack of expertise, you can usually choose between either having a violation
and being fined, or you simply have to hire someone external for an enormous amount of money.
Because people of course will realise that you suddenly lack the expertise and they most likely will charge accordingly.
So what happens when succession planning comes into place and there are different scenarios?
You have to think about scenario number one.

(01:52):
And that's of course the scenario anyone hopes that they will face the most because it is so predictable. That is retirement.
And retirement of course goes and comes in different forms.
I am self employed, which means I will not retire the usual way.
I don't plan to ever retire.
I like what I do, I love what I do.
So I will keep going in one way or the other.
However, in many positions you have to retire sooner or later.

(02:14):
When you are at Supreme Court, for example, in Germany, you can't sit there for longer than
eight years, so you have to leave.
No matter how important you are, no matter how brilliant you are, no Matter what kind of job
you did and how important you were for the country, after eight years, that was it.
The same, for example, applies to the President of the United of America.
In free enterprise you usually can go longer if you want to.
However, there are certain systems in place.

(02:36):
For example in Switzerland where there is a maximum retirement age, that when you work longer
than that, there is no benefit from you, there's no benefit for you.
But still the state driven deductions.
Of course, how many people say why do I pay this?
I think I can retire.
Or they go for self employment.
And of course when you are at public service, there's usually a hard line where they say, look,
that is the age where you retire, maybe a bit of extension depending on which country you're in.

(02:59):
But usually they say from that point in time you're done and you have to leave and enjoy retirement.
So when you are retired, that is of course something you can plan.
Then of course there is voluntary and natural fluctuation.
So for example, when there's someone telling you, hey, next year I'm going to leave Europe,
I'm going to move to Canada, this happens in 18 months time and they tell you everything up

(03:20):
front so you can plan properly.
That is a typical case of voluntary and natural fluctuation.
However, there's also the case, and we all know that when there is involuntary or non natural
fluctuation, which means you say the famous phrase I have to let you go, which they often say
in the US which means I have to fire you, you're fired, you're gone, leave, we don't want you here.

(03:43):
So non natural fluctuation can also mean that someone says thank you very much for the great
offer, thank you very much for considering me to stay here for the next couple of decades.
Because I'm now here for two decades already and you think I'm staying a third one and hear the news, I won't.
Because sometimes people simply move on.
There's a wide range of reasons why people do that.
However, all these non natural fluctuation aspects have one thing in common.

(04:06):
You have to deal with them.
If you like it or not, you cannot force people to stay.
You can of course offer them more money or more benefits or whatever else, but when they simply
say no, I move on, they will move on.
And in addition to that, even when you try to force them and you say oh, when you quit, you
have to stick to that kind of time frame.
When they simply walk out, they walk out.
And especially in the English speaking world, you know that A walk out exists.

(04:28):
Pretty shocking for the German speaking world.
When I tell Germans that sometimes people just walk out, they think, but they have to file that they quit. Letter of resignation.
No, sometimes people just walk out in hospitality especially.
Sometimes people either don't turn up anymore or they simply walk out.
And that is extremely important that you have everything lined up for that case.
And by the way, when people walk out, usually leadership is not great because leadership often

(04:52):
plays a crucial role here the question is which aspects are there? And of course first.
And that's where most people start with, they say, hey, jobs and tasks have to be defined.
So we have job descriptions.
I know that many countries, companies and organisations have job description.
Usually it goes the following.
When I have a consultancy gig there or a training session or a coaching, could I please see the job description?

(05:15):
They're like, yeah, here it is.
And then they hand it to me and they say, yeah, we've just take a look.
And they, they are a bit hesitant and, and, and I wonder why.
And sometimes they are a bit more straightforward, sometimes they are not.
And when I say why are you so hesitant?
They're like, yeah, you know, we wrote these in, in 1997 and maybe not everything is up to date, I'm not sure.

(05:42):
But I think the job didn't change that much.
So I think it should be okay.
Just, just give me some feedback, please.
And I look at it and I say something like, well, there's something about putting in IP addresses
on Windows for workgroups and saving certain files in Excel 95 format.
Not too much up to date, is it?
And they say, yeah, yeah, I think that's maybe need some update.

(06:05):
We don't have the whole system in place anymore.
We changed the whole CRM system. Oops. And there you are.
So having job descriptions also means you need to have people who take care of them.
And of course, job descriptions alone is not succession planning.
There's a huge aspect of culture.
I am pretty sure that when Anna Wintour now leaves Vogue, she was involved in succession planning. Who can take over?

(06:27):
And also who wants to take over that situation?
Let's face it, someone says, do you want to be the chief editor of Vogue?
And by the way, no pressure here, the only thing you inherit is that someone made a random fashion
magazine to the world leading publication globally. No pressure.
Do you want to take that over?
Do you think that you can just sit there and say, I think I just fit in.

(06:50):
And of course, in addition to that, when you see for example Hollywood blockbuster films such
as A movie such as the Devil Wears Prada, clearly a satire and comedy piece about Anna Winter's leadership style.
If this is true or not is debatable, and let's not talk about that right now.
But when you have this aspect, be sure that cultural change happens when people change.

(07:13):
You can, of course, try to keep the same culture, but often change is needed when people change.
I was extremely, positively surprised when someone from Siemens, a very traditional, pretty
conservative German company, at the largest German talent meeting suddenly said, we implemented
holacracy in a decisive department, but only after the leader retired.

(07:33):
We decided about a just for the people who don't know Holacracy.
Holacracy means you're getting rid of basically almost any or most, almost any, all of or the most structures regarding hierarchy.
You're working with teams based on expertise.
Not easy to implement, but it's possible in certain settings.
And this kind of culture means that you have to undergo a dramatic change because Siemens is very hierarchically structured.

(08:01):
And they openly said, we didn't implement it before that because the leader we had of that department wasn't open for it.
It was someone who was 63 and a half years old, 18 months to retirement, and we said, we wait till that person retires.
The person clearly said us, they don't want it, so we're not going to implement it until that person retires. Person retired. Cultural change happened.

(08:21):
And also cultural change has to happen.
When you see, for example, that the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Trademanship, the
Chamber of Trade, Chamber of Craftsmanship in Germany in North Rhine Westphalia, published that
out of 1100 vocational training jobs where people signed contracts, even in German culture,

(08:42):
suddenly 84 didn't turn up on day one.
That's 7%, 7% of the people.
That's almost every 10th person saying, yeah, signed a contract, still couldn't give a flipping flamingo.
I just don't turn up, I found something better or I'm not going to go to work at all.
So you see, cultural change has to happen, especially regarding leadership.

(09:02):
There are way more challenges today than there were a couple of decades ago when you simply
say, we keep going as we did before, or you try to copy someone and you try to imitate someone
who you are clearly not, you lose authenticity and people will not follow you due to a lack of social legitimation.
And that is the third and almost most important aspect is people, especially today when you

(09:26):
do not handle the people process.
So, for example, one aspect that significantly, that I see significantly, often is that people
say yeah, we have a change.
There's a new sales leader.
So this is your new sales executive, he's leading the team and they start with, yeah, more the authoritarian style.
So here are the orders.
And then someone says, I don't think that this is the culture we have.

(09:49):
How do you plan to blend into the culture?
And they say, I'm not blending, I'm not blending.
This is my culture and it's presented to you.
Take it or leave it.
And suddenly you wonder why you have 20 or 30% fluctuation in your organisation.
If you want that, then you achieved your goal.
If you didn't want that, you have to open your wallet wide, wide, wide to cover the recruiting costs you have.
Now, the people aspect of succession planning is a significant one and sometimes cultural change

(10:15):
and people change is much needed.
One of these examples is, for example, Trigema, a German fashion company that produces every
single piece of clothing in Germany, which of course comes with a tremendous challenge of cost
of work, cost of social contribution, but they keep going with it and they are successful with it.
And when the owner, who is now more than 80 years old, was asked about remote work, working

(10:37):
from home, he said, word by word, no one here is working from home, because when you're working
from home, you can't be important for the organisation.
That, of course, when you now smashed your table, on the table and you're just back with me, I feel you.
And I felt exactly the same when I heard this.
Of course, a completely outdated view.
Remote work, of course, especially rc, are in a competition regarding talent.

(11:00):
Remote work needs to be a part of the offer.
And immediately his children jumped in.
Who will overtake the company overtook it recently.
They said, look, that is the point of view our father has, but that is not the culture we have right now.
Of course we have an offer for remote work in our organisation and that saved the day and also reputation of the organisation.

(11:22):
Very important is the cultural aspect and the people aspect are extremely important.
And it needs to be properly planned because often people wonder, how can I get everything implemented?
Because when I want to have all this succession thing, how do I get this implemented in reality?
Because it starts with documentation.
But the problem is, as I already pointed out, documentation is often done once and that's it.

(11:44):
And when you do documentation once and say, yeah, I think that's it, people will say, yeah,
look at all this outdated material.
When someone says, could you update it?
No, it's not my job, not my job.
Someone has to do it.
Yeah, someone has to do with jobs.
So just give it to HR.
And HR says, besides the 138 task we have, plus recruiting on top, and now this on top, I don't think so.

(12:09):
And then it will simply get put into some cupboard and then it will stay there until it becomes relevant.
And suddenly you wonder, why is it not up to date?
When you have any kind of documentation, you need to name people word by word, have to tell
them, needs to be written down, needs to be agreed, especially not just ordered, but agreed,
who is going to update these documents, who is responsible and accountable for these documents, for the outcome?

(12:33):
And usually there are different people accountable.
Accountability is usually, usually with a department leader and responsibility with a department
member, someone who works there.
Both has to be covered in writing that we clearly know who's responsible and who's accountable for all of this.
And of course, last but not least, you need to have the right processes in place.
When you simply say, as soon as someone leaves, we're going to figure it out on the way, that

(12:58):
is not how it goes.
That is not how anything works in this organisation or in any organisation.
When you say, we want to have an organisation that's thriving in any kind of climate, any kind
of situation, any kind of challenge and problem situation, then you need to change the process
as well, or you need to implement one if you don't have any so far.
When you go through all of this and you play through all the scenarios very well.

(13:22):
And by the way, with scenarios, you always have data.
So, for example, when you know, hey, our average turnover is 4%, you can plan for the 4% on
every single count, you can plan with it.
When you say, hey, we hire 10 people for voluntary training, sorry, for vocational training,
but usually 10 people, only seven make it.
You can plan accordingly, but you also have to plan for what happens if all 10 make it.

(13:45):
Do we have enough jobs available?
When you go through all these scenarios, through all the aspects.
And by the way, just yesterday we published an interview with Franci Jane, who's an expert on
leadership, especially in the medical industry and in the STEM industry.
So science, technology, engineering, mathematics, math, as they say in the uk, and we talked about that.

(14:06):
Some hospitals now in the US have 20% turnover in their staff.
Amongst their staff, 20% means 1/5 of, of the whole organisation changes within a year.
And you wonder why you can't get hold of your recruiting cost and you can't cover the cost that you have.
Well, maybe change something about what you do.
So when you go through all the scenarios very well, when you Cover the aspects very well.

(14:29):
And when then the implementation works very well, then your succession planning will be a successful one.
And that's exactly what I wish you all the best of success with your succession.
When there's anything coming up, be prepared.
And when you now say, I think I need to talk about you and I need to talk with you about something, yeah.

(14:49):
Feel free to do so.
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(15:11):
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(15:32):
what can we learn from it from a scientific and proven point of view.
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(15:52):
Send me an email nb networks.com when you send me an email there.
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(16:14):
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(16:36):
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At the end of this podcast it is always to say the most important part is coming now.

(16:57):
And that means apply, apply, apply what you heard.
Because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive changes that you obviously
want to see in your organisation.
I wish you all the best doing so.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Any kind of message will be answered within 24 hours or less.
So I'm looking forward to hearing from you there.
And at the end of this podcast and at the end of this video cast, there's only one thing left for me to say.

(17:20):
Thank you very much for your time.
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