There has been lots of planning inside schools and not for profit organizations for what happens when teachers fall ill, or staff members are unable to work. Team teaching, standardization of curricula for remote learning, identifying staff short term replacements to map who can “fill in” are ongoing leadership team discussions. Preparing to handle issues of trauma, loss, and anxiety at scale are emerging too, increasing readiness to provide care and support across the many scenarios any organization will likely face as we weather this pandemic. These are necessary, and important, considerations.
But what happens when your leaders get sick? You? Your Head? Critical members of the team? I’ve seen very little discussion on this topic, perhaps because boards and leaders feel they have well developed succession plans or perhaps because this feels like a second order of priority while they drive the first wave of crisis response. At the same time, I see leaders working harder than ever, playing “whack a mole” through new, day-to day demands, anticipating an uncertain future, and carrying a heavy emotional weight as they steward their communities through this crisis. This is not necessarily “plug and play” transition planning.
The criticality of succession planning and the ways to ensure steady leadership - even if only temporarily - feel like different challenges right now. First, the ability to reach outside and find talent to replace the temporary absence or tragic loss of a leader is limited -- and it’s everyone’s problem. The trauma to the community if its leader falls ill is naturally greater, and more emotionally complex, than that of a garden variety transition. The impact of multiple leaders falling ill is even more complicated -- and a more likely occurrence than in ordinary times. And the work is different -- and not necessarily what people have been prepared to do. Questions abound:
What happens, for example, if the Head or ED, the CFO and the Program leader are all incapacitated?
How do we address the reality that the work is both different, and more challenging than it was in the course of “normal” operations?
How does day to day management learn and recalibrate in this context -- and how does a new team form -- one that is ready to work?
Is the organization ready and is the Board ready to act?
I wonder how boards and leaders are approaching these questions. Frankly, I wonder if they’ve even had time. In the ideal case, there are already succession plans in place for every senior leader, with clear identification of internal people who can steer the ship -- at least for an interim period. But these plans are designed largely on the assumption that the organization is solving for one role only. And that’s where the vulnerability is as we consider the current state of COVID-19 planning.
Boards need to talk openly with their leaders about a deeper and more flexible response to contingency planning for leadership. One possibility is to create a “leadership map” that helps boards and leaders quickly tap into the people and resources they need when leaders can’t work. Your map might include:
A clear profile of the capacities, skills, and dispositions that matter most in a phase of crisis leadership - and who in your organization has them!
An inventory of what roles are critical, and identification of a minimum of one, ideally multiple stand-ins.
An inventory of staff/faculty who are capable (enough) to step into a broader role, along with a scan of retired leaders who may be able to step in temporarily.
An inventory of board capacity, and readiness to support an interim leader(s)
An inventory of functions that can be outsourced in the case of extended illness or multiple illness (in accounting and payroll for example)
An examination of what roles or functions might be combined, divided, or even eliminated -- at least temporarily, in the event of leadership gaps. This analysis allows for a broader view of the available talent pool inside your school or organization.
A strawman for agile teams that can work collaboratively on mission critical functions -- increasing resilience and building stronger cross-functional coordination at a time of rapid execution when the “left hand may not know what the right hand is doing”
Even if no one is sick now, it’s time to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. In the corporate sector, this issue is high on CEO minds. If boards have a plan in place for how to respond in the case of their leader(s) falling ill, they can continue with even greater confidence the critically important work of ensuring the community is cared for and the mission is sustained. What are you doing to get ready? Please share your best ideas and tips with us -- and we’ll shine a light on them as we continue this conversation!