What are some strategies for building a succession plan that extends beyond senior leadership, and constructs a robust pipeline of emerging leaders at every job level?

To @Peter Bowyer's point below, succession pools are a better option to build talent below senior management level. However, there are still 4 enablers that will help to extend your succession process and ideally there should be a strategy for each:

1. Data Strategy: How do you get to know enough about the talent in your business below the senior leadership level. How do you know their strengths, development areas, career interests, career history, qualifications and keep this updated. This data provides the foundation for the opportunities they could be considered for. For example, succession within finance will require certain foundational technical skills and qualification to move up.

2. Process Strategy: How do you build effective identification, nomination and assessment processes to determine who possible successors are and how ready they are for various roles. How do you deploy an effective development process, primarily focused on assignment management, to help possible successors access the required experiences and practice building specific skills.

3. Culture Strategy: How do you get the right people to care? In theory, the higher up the organisation, the longer the time horizon for planning should be. Only executives who are committed to building a 10 - 15 year succession bench will be prepared to commit the time and energy a long term investment like this would require. So don't try to embed the practice below executive level because manager's time horizons will be too short.

4. Technology Strategy: How does the technology you have facilitate the above three enablers. How does it make it easy to collect and maintain good quality people data? How does it make processes like identification, assessment and development easy? How does it support long-term tracking of investment and impact? Is it tied to executive incentives or at least some form of accountability?

In a previous global company, we focused on training leaders to embody the desired leadership traits. This approach changed our succession conversations, revealing new potential leaders. Training leaders to train their employees created a culture of continuous development. It shifted our focus from current capabilities to future potential. This strategy also supported a more diverse and inclusive leadership pipeline.

Our business transformation requires new skills and higher expectations. We focus on excellence and maintain tight talent reviews, concentrating on key next leaders. Managers rate salaried employees on potential and readiness, creating a nine-box grid for each functional unit. These tools help cascade talent conversations throughout the organization. Transparency in potential and talent is crucial.

We focus on strategic workforce planning, working closely with functional leaders to understand their needs. Talent reviews are a step within this broader planning process. We prioritize development and growth for all employees but target areas where investment will have the biggest impact. Our challenge is building a pipeline at the middle level to prepare for future higher-level positions. This involves creating tools and development plans that cascade through the organization.

Strategies depend on your business goals. For us, transitioning to a focus on ESG required diversifying our talent pool. We balanced internal mobility with external hires, pairing newcomers with existing employees to share industry knowledge. This approach prevents internal talent from feeling bypassed and integrates new skills into the organization. It's about mixing experienced insiders with fresh perspectives.