Too often, team members get thrown into leadership positions without enough thought when a leader leaves suddenly. Building a bench of future financial leaders is more than just an add-on task for the development team. Companies that prioritize curating a bench of future leaders are more likely to find success and remain stable, long-term.
Here are a few ways you can prioritize finding and preparing the team members on your future leadership bench.
Focus on potential, not just performance
Not every individual who is great at crunching the numbers, creating financial plans, or charming a room will be a great leader. Look deeper and consider people who take feedback well, are genuinely interested in growing with the company, remain calm under stress, fix problems that aren’t their responsibility, and help people who aren’t theirs to manage.
People who are great leaders are likely already leading, just in quite ways. Don’t overlook these individuals for the team members who are louder in their actions and successes. Leaders who lead quietly and calmly will benefit your company more than ones who are always announcing their wins.
Pair each high potential team member with a dedicated mentor
Most mentorship programs amount to a weekly meeting over coffee that doesn’t lead to any measurable results. Create a mentorship program that truly helps emerging leaders gain skills, experience, and confidence. Let them shadow regularly, give them tasks that they can look to their mentors for help with, and adopt a productive feedback system where the mentors can give the emerging leaders practical advice for improvement. Make sure your mentors are truly engaged in the program rather than just going through the motions.
Give your team rotational exposure to different leadership roles & tasks
Allow your bench members to try different roles and get well-rounded experience as a leader. If someone can only do or understand one job, they won’t be able to lead a whole team or company full of individuals with different responsibilities. Leaders need to know about multiple roles and how they all work together to create an efficient unit.
Have your emerging leaders do real work in multiple roles, including pushing them to complete tasks that leadership members would typically be responsible for. This hands-on experience will give them the information they need to lead effectively in the future.
Create a succession map and make deliberate stretch assignments
Give your emerging leaders real work that stretches them – and that they can fail at (to an extent). Clearly outline goals and parameters so they have the freedom to truly lead without feeling like there’s zero safety net on day one. Hovering over their shoulder won’t help them build confidence, but offering enough support and guidance so they know they’re still part of a team, not alone, will allow them to gradually adjust to a leadership role and gain poise.
Just like you thought seriously about who would make the best successors for each leadership role, consider which stretch assignments would be best for which emerging leader. Think about their skills, what they need to work on, and their current confidence level to determine who should work on which tasks. Don’t just assign whoever happens to be available on the day.
Encourage self-leadership
Focus on encouraging self-leadership, not just leading others. If someone can’t lead themselves, they’ll struggle to lead a team effectively. Have emerging leaders set goals for themselves, make plans on how to achieve them, and evaluate themselves at the end of each week to see what they did well and what they can improve on. Some of your picks might shy away from looking too closely, realizing they don’t want to lead, and that’s okay. Let each step in the process show you more about your bench members so you have all the information you need to make the best decisions for the organization.
Don’t neglect soft skills
Too often people focus on how well emerging leaders are at the numbers side of the job, but communication is one of the most important skill categories for leaders. Don’t just evaluate them based on how they report to other financial employees. Have them speak with other teams and board members. Can they translate the data into actionable insights that people with less financial expertise can understand? That ability is a crucial skill for a financial leader, but it’s often overlooked, which can lead to misunderstanding and frustration.
Remember that even an internal leadership hire requires onboarding
Even though they’re familiar with your company, systems, and procedures, they’re still entering a new position which requires onboarding to set them up for success. Get your incoming leader working alongside the outgoing one well before their official transition date so they can adjust to the day-to-day responsibilities and see someone else in the role, leading effectively.
Thinking about and building your bench of future financial leaders now keeps you from scrambling when you need someone to step up. The time and effort you put into mentorship and internal emerging leaders is an investment in your organization’s future.
If you’re looking for support building your organization’s bench of future leaders or looking for help setting up a workshop or corporate speaking event on the topic, get in touch with our team at KSH Consulting to see how we can help.
