Succession Planning, Mentoring and Coaching: The Key to Staff Development Cathy Standiford, City Manager City of La Palma

Staff Development What’s the Problem?

What Generation Are You?  Silent Generation  Baby Boomers  Generation X  Generation Y

Who’s Behind You?  Fewer college students are selecting public administration  Public administration/public policy students are currently more attracted to jobs in the nonprofit sector  There has been limited effort to groom professionals already in the pipeline

Why Should You Care?

What Happens When People Leave?  Impact on the work group?  Impact on the Division/Department?  Impact on the organization as a whole?  Impact on…..YOU?

Succession Planning A strategy for minimizing the impact of departures

Why Isn’t Succession Planning More Common?  Time Consuming  Important, but Not Urgent  No Immediate Results  Resistance from Managers and Directors (threatened)  Political Instability  Mentality that Employees are short-term

Why Succession Planning SHOULD be a Common Practice  Leaders/potential leaders want to work for quality organizations  Limited talent pool  Provides an opportunity to identify potential leaders and groom them for advancement  Helps the organization prepare for the future

What is Succession Planning?  “Constant Change” Planning  An Organizational Journey with No End  Ensuring Continuity of Leadership  Identifying Gaps in Existing Talent Pool  Identifying/Nurturing Future Leaders

Action Steps to Succession Planning  Identify the desired leadership skills and attributes  Identify potential leaders  Share vision with each employee  Assess each individuals’ goals

Action Steps, continued  Identify gaps in skills  Assign “growth tasks” & training  Mentor and coach so that they’re ready to ascend into leadership  Don’t let those who are not interested in advancement hold you back!

Small Group Discussion  What CPRS Professional core competencies are essential for your job?  Who on your staff currently has them?  What strategies can you think of that would help you help them develop those competencies?

CPRS Core Competencies  Business Acumen  Communications and Marketing  Planning and Evaluation  Community Relations  Leadership and Management

Mentoring/Coaching

The Value of Mentoring/Coaching  An important part of succession planning  Builds long-term, organizational loyalty  Customized “on the job” development  Inexpensive – primarily “soft costs”  Flexible: formal or informal, same or different organizations  A good mentor-protégé relationship can be beneficial throughout a career

Mentoring/Coaching Is:  A relationship between two people  Focused on career development through –Skill and experience building –Sharing of insights and ideas –Evaluation and constructive feedback –Candor, trust, and confidentiality

Given the Limited Number of People Following Behind…  Everyone has a responsibility to coach or mentor someone else  Everyone has the capacity to be a good protégé.

Creating a Great Coaching Relationship  Even one hour of your time can make a big difference to someone  It’s not necessary to have a “relationship” before starting the dialogue  Be a mirror, not a sponge!  Let the protégé do the work

Coaching Practice!

Final Thoughts…  People quit people before they quit organizations –What are you doing to inspire your best and brightest to stay with you? –How much do you know about your employees, their goals and aspirations? –What are you doing to help them achieve their dreams?

Final Thoughts…  Develop your action plan before you get into a crisis –What steps can you take today to grow leadership for tomorrow?  Hire tough –The most important asset in your organization is having the RIGHT people on your team –Never lower your standards just to fill a position!

Final Thoughts…  Model staff development by developing yourself! –Get out of your comfort zone –Read 10 minutes a day –Listen to people –Set specific goals for yourself and your team –Stay positive –Give back—your legacy is what you leave with others

Take the Coaching Challenge! 1. Develop a Succession Plan for your Division or work group 2. Create a coaching relationship with at least one of your subordinates 3. Ask someone else to be your coach and schedule time to talk with them

Additional Resources  Monday Morning Leadership (Cottrell)  Coaching & Mentoring for Dummies (Brounstein)  Cal-ICMA Website:  Preparing the Next Generation Resource Guide (downloadable from the Cal-ICMA website)

Succession Planning, Mentoring and Coaching: The Key to Staff Development Questions? Comments?