What is Succession Planning and why is it Important for an NGO?

Non-profits have so much to worry about these days, like finding funds, acquiring and retaining donors, core work, projects and activities. Being occupied with so many things at once does not let the non-profit organizations ‘think’ like an organization sometimes. People working at non-profits end up feeling that they have much more to look for outside the organization, rather than inside it. Management pioneers have stressed on the need to develop strategic thinking, developing and nurturing talent within the organizations to make them successful in the long run.

Effective organizations must develop and implement organizational strategic plans, one of which is succession planning. Succession planning means a deliberate process to identify, recognize and nurture a cadre of second-line leaders, which has a talented pool of people within the organization to take on the lead as and when needed. Just like Kings in ancient times used to identify and nurture their successors to take up the throne after them, it is in the best interest of the organization’s sustainability to plan the succession of the leadership and other roles also. Today, not many organizations put enough thought to plan succession, maybe because it is not a very happy thing to think about leaving and handing over responsibilities, maybe it is the ego that stops people at leadership positions, or maybe it is simply a disbelief in the organizational human resource that prevents leaders to pass on the baton. Read More