CIENTIA - People Performance - Process Overview.

Overview of the Succession Process

In order to realize your potential, you need to focus your thinking and activities on specific career and professional development goals. You need a clear plan to guide you that considers a broad, but relevant, range of developmental objectives from a realistic yet imaginative perspective.

To assist in meeting this objective, Cientia has developed the process outlined below. This workbook will guide you in thinking through each of the steps to ensure that the career plan you create is coherent and accurately targeted. The Career Plan will be an explicit summary of the direction you want your career to take, the reasons behind these decisions and choices, and what you intend to learn or improve in order to achieve your goals.

Formal Assessments. Effective succession management starts with comprehensive and detailed measurement of each individual's unique blend of abilities, motivations and values. This provides an accurate foundation and baseline from which to plan you and your organization's developmental needs as well as monitor your performance. Although somewhat lengthy overall, each measure is chosen to provide unique and valuable information for your developmental report. Almost all measures are presented online for efficiency and your convenience.

Career Goals. A concise statement of your overall career goals and identification of any positions which you feel you should move through on the way to achieving your ultimate objectives.

Legacy Plan. Your strategy for showing superior leadership by creating a lasting and meaningful contribution in your current capacity. Highlights the key areas of strategic change you will focus on to become a top performer.

Competency Assessment. Exemplary leaders are more self aware and people focused than average leaders. This knowledge and perspective facilitates their organizational influence and effect. In this section you will identify and analyze these key personal and interpersonal factors that determine your value and progress.

Performance Driver Assessment. Every organization and industry delivers value through a unique set of core competencies that determine it's efficiency and long term viability. This section determines which are most vital for achieving your particular organization's performance and strategic objectives.

Performance Driver Development. Outstanding leaders are knowledgeable across a broad portfolio of business process areas and are experts in at least some. This section determines which areas you need to develop expertise in for your particular organization and to produce a game plan to acquire them.

Competency Development. Optimizing potential requires leveraging strengths while mitigating weaknesses. This section provides direction for both through a gap analysis that determines your level of competencies compared to those of an ideal performer for the position you aspire to in your specific organization.

Critical Success Factors. Action Plans are activity-based, but to be effective, career development needs to be outcome-based. This section identifies and summarizes the handful of learning and development outcomes or results you will pursue and accomplish in the next one to three years.

Annual Action Plan. You develop a specific Action Plan to guide your progress. In this final step, you define and commit to what you will do this year to advance your development. The key is to understand how you learn best, and to be creative in selecting the development tools you will use.

Support Network. At their core, many competencies are substantially interpersonal processes. Consequently, attempting development in isolation is inefficient, or even counterproductive, and requires help, advice and support from a range of sources. This section helps you identify those valuable contacts and shows how to gain their ongoing committment to your progress.