15 Ways To Prepare For Your Company’s Next Generation Of Leaders

As baby boomers retire, your company may have more high-level leadership positions to fill. These leadership positions come with expectations that must be met quickly for your company to continue thriving. That’s why it’s important to set your employees up for success now and prepare them to take on these roles in the future.

We asked a panel of Forbes Coaches Council members how you can prepare your employees today for success in higher-level leadership positions tomorrow. Below are their top tips.

1. Have Boomers Choose Their Successors Now

As baby boomers prepare to retire, they should be training someone, or two, to take over their position. It’s a planned event that should be on-going rather than after the announcement is made of the impending retirement. It helps in the continuity of the tasks associated with the position. – Claudette Gadsden, Coach Claudette & Associates

2. Build Formal Career Paths And Ladders

Formalize leadership training programs by career track to solidify what is required to attain the next level of leadership. Acclimate all employees to mentorship and on-demand training programs regardless of the functional department. This will empower employees to participate in employee development programs that support their interests and attain company succession planning goals at the same time. – Debbie Ince, Executive Talent Finders, Inc

3. Rethink Your Corporate Structure

Long gone are the days of rigid hierarchies. Leading companies are exploring concepts such as lateral organizational structures, collective and servant leadership philosophies. Augmenting your leadership development curriculum with new models and practices will help equip your emerging leaders for the future. And while there is a lot of buzz about millennials, don’t overlook your Gen X talent. – La’Wana Harris, La’Wana Harris Inc.

4. Make Your Current Leaders Career Coaches

If you invest in developing coaching skills (asking questions, being a thinking partner, not advising immediately) in your current leaders, they can develop new generations of accountable and courageous managers. Every interaction and feedback may change into an opportunity to enhance the leadership skills and strategic thinking of employees. – Inga Bielińska, Inga Bielinska Coaching Consulting Mentoring

5. Hire An Executive Coach For Key Players

To best prepare, your key executives for top leadership roles, partner them with executive coaches. Great executive coaches build custom plans to help top players transition successfully into key roles and deliver results from day one. Each professional has unique blind spots and leadership challenges and coaches help executives hone their strengths, recognize their blind spots and build success. – Shefali Raina, Alpha Lane Partners

6. Think Ahead And Plan For Future Leadership Positions

Identify key positions in the next coming decade and the ones that would need to be filled today should someone abruptly leave. Groom those high potentials to take over today should that be the case, and prepare them to fill jobs that are on the rise. Way too often succession planning is performed for existing critical roles. Stay ahead of the curve and anticipate future needs. – Rosa Vargas, Authentic Resume Branding & Career Coaching

7. Ask Employees About Their Career Goals And Adapt Accordingly

Oftentimes in our organizations, we try to fit employees into already existing positions of baby boomers. That opening may not be a good fit for a young leader. A different approach might be to ask the current mid-level leaders where they see their career headed. Find out what parts of their jobs they like and in what areas they would like to grow. Think of adjusting the responsibilities. Be creative. – Terri Klass, Terri Klass Consulting

8. Encourage Mentor Relationships As Early As Possible

While the retirement of boomers is inevitable, many will look to continue working or adding value in some capacity after retirement. By beginning a mentorship relationship early, existing employees can develop the necessary skills they need to step into a leadership role. By maintaining those relationships long term, baby boomers can continue to add value after they retire as coaches and mentors. – Gavin Ryan, NEKSA

9. Create Self-Development Plans With Each Employee

Succession planning should always be a part of the business objectives. This means both vertically and horizontally. Every member of the team should have a plan for self-development that aligns with their team development, department development and ultimately the overall business objectives of the entire organization. – Shelley Smith, Premier Rapport

10. Train, Coach, And Test

Baby boomers enjoyed a long life cycle of leadership development, which is not the case for future generations. Companies gain an edge with investment in leadership training—both personal transformation and skill-building. Create sustainability with coaching. Finally, test them. Test leadership and decision making for future leaders now. Offer a tough assignment with support and debrief fully. – Mary Pat Knight, Leaders Inspired

11. Develop Ideal Candidate Profiles For Each Position

When you can articulate what the ideal candidate looks like for each position and you understand your employees, you can start to create succession plans. Imagine having a leadership position that will become open soon and for two years you’ve had three internal people identified that appear to be a good fit. Now imagine you have a similar scenario for every significant position in your company. – Jason Kiesau, JK Leadership and Oasis, A Paychex Company

12. Focus On Emotional Intelligence Training

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a hallmark of effective leaders and managers. It’s also a better predictor of success than IQ or technical skills. So is self-awareness. To understand and improve both, all leaders and managers should have the opportunity to take a 360-degree assessment of their EI. For those with the courage to ask others how they’re doing, the insights are game-changing. – Lee Eisenstaedt, Leading with Courage Academy

13. Get Employees Involved In Writing And Speaking Engagements

Creating paths for employees to write, publish, speak and the record may seem like a waste of time as companies hurtle toward the next profitable quarter, but if you want to identify emerging leaders, this is one fabulous way to groom them now. Find creative, powerful and specific ways for your emerging leaders to begin to train, speak or write for internal and external audiences and stakeholders. – John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.

14. Support Employee Growth And Improvement

Give them the opportunity to grow and support them in the endeavor. If they find an improvement for an internal process, let them try it out. If an employee is outgrowing their current position, work with them to expand their role. Or when a position opens up and the fit for it isn’t immediately apparent, help potential replacements develop the necessary skills to take on the role. – Andy Bailey, Petra Coach

15. Close The Experience Gap

Experience and confidence to lead come with time, but to close the gap, engage all potential leaders routinely to address the organization’s most pressing problems. Challenge them to do this while doing their day jobs. Have them self-organize and hold them accountable for delivering the results by engaging as leaders at the highest level. And the baby boomers? Stand back and be great team coaches. – Lindy Brewster, ORConsulting