Context and Challenge
As a FTSE 100 organisation looked at their succession plan for a long serving Group CEO, Merryck were brought in to support two internal candidates who had been identified as potential successors following an assessment project.
The Chair and Board were keen to give the candidates the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in the best possible ways in the two years leading up to the succession date. Despite the obvious competitive element, the challenge was also to retain both executives for the longer term.
Solution
Each individual was matched with their own Mentor to work with them based on their specific context. They undertook a deep dive retreat session with their Mentor and agreed a regular cadence of engagements alongside connecting between sessions when required.
An important part of setting up the Mentoring engagement involved stakeholder interviews with key individuals. The insights received were built into the key areas of focus for each Mentoring assignment along with the individual context and the findings from the assessment undertaken.
The Chair wanted to monitor progress and could do this directly with the individuals. In the case of the interaction with the mentors, the Chair was acutely mindful of confidentiality between the executive and mentor and confined the feedback to observations on progress and updates on company context and the succession process.
Towards the end of the succession period, the Board also undertook an external search.
Outcome
One of the internal candidates was successfully appointed to the Group CEO role and continued to work with their mentor as they onboarded into the role. The other individual remains in the business and the individual’s work successfully alongside one another.
