Succession Planning

with Bonnie Hagemann

Lack of Bench Strength

I like basketball. I’ve always liked it. I like playing basketball with my kids, and I like watching it both
in person and on TV. My favorite team is the Oklahoma City Thunder. I like complaining about how
Westbrook is hogging the ball and then cheering like crazy when he gets on a shooting streak. I like
to watch all the Thunder players, but they do have an ongoing issue, and it has to do with their bench
strength. Here’s a quote from Alex Kirshner on SB Nation during the April 2017 playoffs:
“Russell Westbrook is the best player on the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it’s not cutting-edge basketball
knowledge that they’ll do worse when he’s not on the floor. But the degree to which they were inept
without him during this week’s playoff series loss to the Houston Rockets is staggering.”
This is what happens when there is a lack of bench strength, and it doesn’t just happen in basketball. In
fact, in our most recent Trends in Executive Development research, 466 medium and large companies
identified a lack of bench strength; that is to say having leaders who are prepared, skilled, and ready to
step into key positions as one of the top trends that organizations need to address for leadership today
and in the near future. The thing is, this isn’t a new trend. From 2000 to 2014, a lack of bench strength has
been in the top five of the most influential internal and external factors driving executive development.
When we look at the overall picture, we can identify several possibilities for the slow progress to bridge
the bench strength gap:

1. The demographics are not in our favor as the baby boomers exit and Gen Xers move up. There are
11% fewer Gen Xers than baby boomers. Not to worry though, it won’t be long until the massive
Gen Y generation gives the Gen Xers a push or a little healthy competition for the “suite seats.”

2. Senior executives are not convinced that bench strength is at the foundation of organizational
success. Progress may be made in this area as executive development professionals educate senior
executives on the trends and the current state of their organization and work together to establish
bench strength targets as key business objectives.

3. The other possibility is bandwidth. Let me explain. In 2016, lack of bench strength was rated as the
#6 influencer on executive development, yet it was rated as the #13 “key priority” for executive
development. In other words, a lack of bench strength is being recognized as a major influence on
business and leadership, but it is not being addressed at the same level of importance. Most of us
have heard of doing the urgent versus doing the important. Leaders have so many issues to deal
with, the urgent often trumps the important, but I would argue that a lack of bench strength is in
fact an urgent issue.

Succession Planning with Bonnie Hagemann

1 of 2
I believe the latter reason is the real culprit. I believe that leaders fundamentally know that having a strong
bench is important and that if they focus on it, they can fix the issue even when demographics are not
in their favor. The challenge is the day-to-day urgent matters will often not relent long enough to make
building a strong bench a top priority. Unfortunately, if it doesn’t become a top priority, our companies will
find themselves in a situation like the Oklahoma City Thunder, where a mission-critical position becomes
vacant for any number of reasons and the bench is incapable of carrying on the business at the same level.

Companies can begin immediately to change their outlook by insisting that having a strong bench two
and three deep for mission-critical positions is a part of the culture. Today, less than half (48%) of the
organizations who completed the survey have a formal succession management program. Oversight of the
bench strength issue will ideally start at the board of directors. with the CEO as champion. The CEO can
establish metrics for the bench and then report those metrics up to the board. The board should hold the
CEO accountable because what gets measured, gets done.

The CEO will then need to work with the chief human resource officer as well as the senior team to ensure
that all mission-critical positions have been accounted for in the succession plan. After the positions are
identified, the charge must be to get the bench prepared and ready to go in and play at a moment’s
notice.

I once worked with a large radiology department back in 2005 and 2006. The chief was finding it difficult
to recruit top radiologists in a competitive market, so we called a retreat to focus on two things: getting
the right people in the right places and tackling the bench strength issue. We left the retreat with clarity
as well as goals and actions. Within a few months, the problem was solved—with all seats filled and
substitutions ready. It’s not easy, but it’s possible, and any company who decides to do well at this can
figure out a way to do it. Excellent succession planning is not a matter of genius. It’s just a matter of focus.

*Kirshner, Alex. Here’s how badly Rockets destroyed Thunder with Russell Westbrook on the bench:
Westbrook sat for 46 minutes in this series. When he did, the Rockets outscored his teammates by 58
points. SB Nation. Apr 26, 2017. https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2017/4/26/15431112/russell-westbrook-
rockets-thunder-lineups-2017.

Succession Planning with Bonnie Hagemann

2 of 2