From my experience, a succession plan, to succeed, required a cheerleader or cheerleaders.  The more people working together towards a common goal will reach that goal more quickly than one individual.  This can be a challenge for most leaders to share their vision and what to them, succession looks like.

Many an entrepreneur may have some colleagues in whom he confides, hopes, dreams, aspirations.  Rarely is this shared internally within his own organization, who often are the people who will be taking over a role or roles previously held by the owner.  We all have some reasons, often valid, why not to share the succession plan such as:

– lack of trust

– lack of their understanding of your overall goals

– sign of weakness

Communicating your succession plan, or relevant parts of it, to key people within your succession plan, will surely help you.  The more that you speak about it with them, the better their engagement and commitment can be.  Then they can have a clearer understanding of where you plan to go and help you get there.  Assuming that you have created an environment of trust and self-motivation, sharing and communicating with others on a regular and continuous basis, will make you and others the cheerleaders for your succession plan.

Learn, think, apply.