Disciplined cultivation and the development of executives and other essential personnel must be integral parts of succession planning. Traditionally, however, most companies have isolated succession planning and management development in separate silos. Partitioning these interdependent practices, however, is frequently the cause of training and development gaps going undetected until they become significant management problems. As evidence, Davenport at Towers Perrin says, "Many companies are still hostage to the phenomenon of promoting their best engineers, programmers, and salespersons to managerial roles." This, he adds, is a double mistake. Not only do they remove top performers, but worse, assign them to roles for which they are likely ill suited. So, in a sense, succession planning involves both creating new opportunities for key individuals and not placing them in the wrong job—important considerations for both the individual's future and the organization's as well.

What does it take, then, to recruit, develop, nurture, and retain individuals with the specific types of knowledge, skills, and personal qualities the organization will require for future success? Here are four of the most essential components:

1. CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Experience demonstrates that workers who possess a clear understanding of their career path options and the opportunities their employers present are more likely to strive to achieve their goals and less likely to leave the company.
2. TRAINING & COACHING: Organizations need to carefully consider the specific skills, knowledge, competencies, and personal qualities they require, both as an organization and for the each key position. Only then should they design and implement management development initiatives that will inculcate these specific characteristics in employees.
3. COMPENSATION: How workers perceive their compensation directly affects their motivation, performance, and ultimately, their loyalty to the organization. Any weakness in this area leaves organizations vulnerable to unexpected loss and poaching by competitors.
4. MEASUREMENT & REWARD: As with training, the metrics and systems companies use to evaluate and reward workers must closely correlate with desired performance. And, as performance goals change, these systems must change accordingly to avoid the problems inconsistency often brings.

Companies and employees each have their own unique strengths and needs. The challenges Coca Cola's Ivers faced didn't reveal themselves until after his appointment as CEO—an excellent example of what can happen when companies fail to identify and develop the particular competencies success in their organizations requires.

Obstacles to Effective Manager Development

As we've seen, while most enterprises offer management development programs, their efforts too often fall short of addressing the critical knowledge, skill, and cultural gaps in those individuals on whom the organization's future rests. The challenges of identifying these gaps and tracking each individual's progress can indeed be daunting. But if such gaps are not identified, senior management may never truly know the level of promotional readiness of its workforce. Here are at a few of the larger challenges they face:

• INCONSISTENT SYSTEMS: How a company measures and tracks individual performance must not only be consistent with its corporate goals and strategy, but also consistent throughout the organization, however large and diverse.
• MULTITUDE OF POSITIONS: The number of positions that are critical to organizational performance, and that therefore should be part of management development and succession planning, is typically substantial. This translates to a vast amount of detailed information that must be kept current and accurate to be of real value.
• COMMUNICATION & TRANSPARENCY: Information about key employees' competencies, performance, and progress is of little benefit when stored in supervisors' files. While maintaining privacy is mandatory, access by both senior management and the employee can improve accuracy and inform those who need to know.
• ORGANIZATIONAL COMPLEXITY: As companies grow larger, more complex, and more geographically diverse, so too does the task of recruiting and developing employees to fill vital positions.

Barriers to management development, combined with those of succession planning, can seem overwhelming. "Too often the comprehensive, ongoing effort required to do these effectively quickly leads to fatigue," says Davenport. It also leads to these efforts becoming narrowly focused on the highest levels rather than implemented broadly throughout the organization."