The world’s oldest, continually operating company still doing business today is widely thought to be Kongō Gumi, a Japanese construction company with records dating back to 578 CE, making the business an incredible 1,447 years old. These days, the average lifespan of a US S&P 500 company is just 15 years.
While achieving 1,500 years of continuous operation is unrealistic for most companies, successful longevity should always be the goal. As markets are inundated with new technology, policy, and competitors, thinking long-term can be daunting. Focusing on building skills for succession planning and leadership can cut the noise and offer a path to success.
Building Leaders
Finding a successor doesn’t have to wait until a leader leaves – and frankly, it should not. Building a clear talent pipeline encourages high performers to stay with a company, attracts hardworking prospects looking to work their way up, and develops a pool of potential leaders to maximize business continuity and cohesion.
Employees are concerned with job security, looking for companies that offer career advancement opportunities and the ability to maximize and unlock their full potential. Showing dedication to progress, both individual and organizational, will benefit retention and recruitment efforts in a competitive market. But what skills should leaders look to progress in, and how can companies create a holistic training support system?
The What
Great leadership drives business longevity through skills like emotional intelligence, communication, delegation, adaptability, and strategic thinking. While hiring managers can search for the perfect external candidate, longevity is ultimately about building internal systems capable of weathering the outside storms. A talent development program is exactly the long-term strategy needed to build a knowledgeable and loyal workforce.
Continuously training and evaluating their workforce’s leadership skills gives HR and L&D professionals the chance to directly contribute to the health of teams, too. Training emotional intelligence and communication leads to managers better equipped to a multi-generational workforce and adept at navigating complex issues that may affect the workplace. Delegation and adaptability can lower workload issues, improve trust within teams, and ensure setbacks or changes don’t make or break a project. Valuing strategic thinking encourages employees to think beyond rote processes or department barriers, leaving no resource unused while working toward the greatest ROI.
The How
In partnership with training, methods like mentorship, reward, and recognition build a strong pathway capable of meeting the needs of high-performers and driven employees where they are at and addressing individual imbalances. Mentors can show real examples of how these non-technical skills are used and the direct impact they have on the workforce. Recognition and tangible incentives for applying leadership skills also feed into a company culture that rewards forward-thinking human skills. A multi-layered leadership development program lays solid foundations for a company’s long-term success in the same way that the best succession plans are holistic and agile.
Succession Planning
Here is everyone’s ideal leadership transition: Leader #1 has had a successful career and wishes, of their own accord, to retire. Leader #1 collaborates with the board, peers, and HR to formalize their typical responsibilities, identify projects that will be affected, and assess the company’s future needs. They’ve thought of everything. Leader #1 is involved in the selection of Leader #2 – their replacement – and they have the perfect person who has been waiting in the wings. Leader #2 is experienced, knowledgeable, well-regarded, and excited to step up.
After a brief transition period, everything goes perfectly! There’s no scrambling for missing documents or surprise projects that turned out to be critical to quarterly goals. Leader #2 aligns with the company culture and has an inspiring plan for the company’s future.
Realistically, succession for leaders with vital, far-reaching roles rarely looks like this. But why should businesses strive for that ideal anyway?
Leaders have an immense impact on employees, both at work and in their personal lives, but these leaders don’t have to have a corner office to wield the same level of influence. Succession planning ensures there’s as little harmful interference with an employee’s day-to-day as possible, especially amongst a workforce facing increasing disengagement and uncertainty.
As a starting point, a proactive HR team can work with strategists to determine what roles are driving company growth and progress. As much as strategists would like to have a plan for any potential departure, this analysis ensures those essential roles are prioritized.
It also spotlights the most critical information leaders can pass on. One concern with retiring employees in particular is the potential loss of their institutional knowledge. This is part of succession planning, which involves documenting lessons, data, and projects that have helped the company move forward, thereby safeguarding its future by avoiding past mistakes.
By prioritizing vital roles, preserving institutional knowledge, and nurturing a talent pipeline, companies can ensure sustained growth. Investing in human-centered leadership skills builds resilient teams capable of navigating change and creating their own success. Ultimately, an organization’s greatest strength is its people. While Kongō Gumi had the advantage of being a family business, that clear succession path, generational knowledge sharing, and undoubtedly strong leadership development have been central to building the people behind its nearly 1,500-year history.
