Chapter 25

Building a Reservoir
of High-Potential
Women and Diverse
Groups
Leon T. Lanier, Sr., Vice President and COO
The Winters Group

I N TODay’s COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT, DIVERSITY IS A KEy ELEMENT IN A

successful succession planning process. When properly acknowledged,
diversity provides realistic and achievable goals that are
competitively advantageous and beneficial to both the individual and
the organization. Diversity, integrated within the succession planning
process, forms the strategic alliance between management and the diverse
workforce to ensure the retention and development of future leaders who
represent a variety of
backgrounds.
Succession planning strategies must recognize each employee
regardless of race, color, religion, gender, or disability as a valued individual
contribu- tor, promote the existence of a fair system of workplace equality,
and reflect a diversity philosophy whose intent is easily understood by
employees. It is then easier for the “best and brightest” to commit to the
company for the long term, knowing that their commitment to the
company is shared by the company’s commitment to them.
Succession planning approaches that incorporate diversity strategies add
a significant level of complexity to a process that may be very vague. The

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Building a Reservoir of High-Potential Women and Diverse 274
Groups
more clearly delineated the succession process, the easier it will be to
create a more diverse workforce. This chapter will explore ways to build
diversity into your succession plan.

Diversity-Focused Succession Planning Risks

The succession planning process is fraught with potential risks if it has not
been carefully designed and communicated. When a diversity focus becomes
part of the process, the necessity for clear communication and thoughtful
cre- ation is even greater. Several potential risks follow:
• Often leadership development and promotion of key performers is
highly subjective, based on a favoritism of who knows whom, instead
of an objective approach with a systematic, formal selection process.
This subjectivity, if questioned by an employee, may ignite personal
threats to one’s job security and future survival in the workplace.
• There is always the risk that current leaders can sabotage the
develop- ment of any candidate they think is undeserving of
promotional opportunities designated in the succession plan, chosen
only for minority representation.
• Succession planning candidates’ inexperience with organizational cli-
mate issues may impede their leadership development. Minority can-
didates need adequate time to develop and align with corporate
values as well as time to understand the cultural dimensions of
senior man- agement.
• Corporate leaders may assume that minority people will not adopt
the cultural values of the company or the organization and foster
culture change over time.
• The organization may be “unconsciously” resistant to upsetting the
status quo. In order to succeed, everyone—through introspection—
must acknowledge that a diverse workforce led by diverse top manage-
ment will benefit all stakeholders.
Diversity as a Component of the Succession Plan
Here are six reasons for including diversity in the succession plan:
• It is the appropriate thing to do. Diversity means encouraging and
enabling all employees to draw fully on their talents and skills for the
benefit of the business.
• By 2005 native white males (both well and poorly educated) will make
up only 38% of the American workforce, a continuous decrease.
Competitive advantage will come to those companies that best adapt
to incorporating diverse groups into their leadership development.
• It better reflects the customer/client mix.
 • It enhances organization decision-making by offering alternative
opin- ions and perspectives.
• It shows the public that the company is fair in its practices.
• It minimizes disillusionment in diverse groups, ensuring greater par-
ticipation in business procedures and practices.

Considerations for Succession Planning

This book was intended to help organizations achieve excellence through
proactively managing their people. Integrating diversity considerations into
succession planning must therefore consider the three key success factors
inherent in achieving organization excellence.
1. Find, assess, develop, reward, and retain Superkeepers—those employ-
ees who greatly exceed organization expectations and are the backbone
for current and future organization success.
2. Identify and have backups for key positions with the best candidates.
Key positions are critical to organization success.
3. Invest resources in employees based on current and potential
contribu- tion to organization success.
Three potential strategies for diversity and succession planning emerge
from the preceding success factors.

Scenario I
Every organization seeks to increase its pool of Superkeepers, since these
indi- viduals represent a major driving force to excellence. Since diverse
talent can enhance the collective impact of this group by providing
alternative perspec- tives, an organization must be prepared to grow its
Superkeeper potential pool from the entry level and therefore must
accelerate its efforts to recruit mem- bers of diverse groups. Once an
individual is identified as a Superkeeper, career paths, rewards, and training
and development must be accelerated. Since the Superkeeper pool is
inherently small, care must be taken to prop- erly develop sufficient
numbers within the critical talent cadre to generate “diversity” candidates
for future assignments. When organizations have a void (positions with no
replacement), they should seek to recruit candidates with diverse
backgrounds at the Superkeeper level. Although the pay-level requirements
to attract and retain this group will be higher, the move is jus- tified to
increase the Superkeeper pool. Ultimately, no significant impact on the
payroll will be felt by providing incentives for this small number of must-
have individuals.
Scenario II
Key positions must be backed up by the best-qualified candidates. The suc-
cession planning system must ensure that there are no barriers to members
of diverse groups from competing for those key positions. Again, building a
pool of highly talented people at the bottom levels provides ample opportu-
nity to assist, develop, and position diversity talent.

Scenario III
An organization must invest in individual employees based on their actual
and/or potential contribution to creating value for the organization:
Superkeeper—greatly exceeding organization expectations, Keeper—exceed-
ing organization expectations, and Solid Citizen—meets organization expec-
tations. “Diversity” can be included as a key organization competency. This
competency brings multicultural enrichment for all employees. Perhaps the
qualification is based on an ability to recruit other candidates with diverse
backgrounds by contributing to the image of the organization as a fair
employer. Perhaps the qualification is based on an ability to put ideas into
play that might not otherwise be considered. Nevertheless, people possess-
ing the “diversity” competency must be at least a Solid Citizens (hopefully
Superkeepers or Keepers) to be considered for such a role. An organization
should rationalize clearly the benefit of establishing such a qualification and,
once it is established, the organization can proceed to select suitable candi-
dates possessing this desirable competency. Everyone in the organization
must be fairly assessed in terms of performance, potential, and competencies
and these must be projected into career paths, training and development, and
other enrichment opportunities.

Monitoring Diversity in Succession Planning

The best ways to monitor diversity is through “bench strength” summary
reviews where reports on replacements for specific positions, including
voids, are periodically reviewed. Also Superkeeper reports (lists of highest-
talent diversity human resources) are analyzed. A review of these two
reports pro- vides detailed information of the diversity talent flow at each
level and should include proactive development plans for all candidates
listed.

Reflecting Diversity into the Succession Plan

There are four broad options for reflecting diversity into your succession
plan:
1. Voids. Ensure diversity in recruitment plans.
2. No void. Use existing replacement/override with diversity candidates.
(This option is rarely used.)
3. Introduce diversity into entry-level recruitment processes.
4. Introduce competencies and a performance management system that
 produce awareness and accountability at all levels of the organization
for diversity strategies.
Organizations with a specific competency or behavioral competency
component that addresses diversity considerations ensure that supervisors
and managers are measured by the quality of their decisions regarding the
selection, development, and retention of women and diverse groups. The
link becomes stronger when it is part of a manager’s performance review
and con- nected to salary considerations. The best companies have
orientation and training programs based on the “diversity” competencies to
ensure owner- ship in the process of all organization levels.
Addressing these four options appropriately should lead to the develop-
ment of a large diverse pool of employees through:
• Active selection, development, positioning, and retention of women
and diverse groups.
• Identifying and eliminating barriers to promotion.
• Ensuring that women and diverse groups receive suitable consideration.

Benefits of Diversity-Focused Succession

Planning
Diversity-focused succession planning benefits an organization by:
• Identifying individuals from diverse groups for leadership roles in
advance of need.
• Assisting the decision-makers in developing, training, coaching, and
mentoring multicultural people for future achievement, thereby
ensuring continuity of diverse leadership and continuity of a culture
based on minority sensitivity.
• Providing an interactive process to continually assess and retain the
organization’s key performers and make the organization more
attrac- tive to multicultural job seekers from outside.
• Assisting with translating corporate goals and objectives into
concrete organizational actions by bringing diverse viewpoints into
the deci- sion-making process.
• Facilitating a perception of a congenial workplace that in turn makes
for a more productive environment. By creating an environment
where employees feel content knowing that they are valued and that
advancement opportunities are available to them regardless of their
religion, race, or gender, an organization reaps the benefits. Happy
employees require less human resource intervention, thereby adding
to the bottom line.
Challenges for Every Company
Identifying intelligent and gifted people within the organization is very com- petitive in today’s
market—resources are scarce and companies are vying to attract and retain these valuable
resources. Companies are aligning them- selves as mentors to universities and colleges to help
identify the brightest and most talented students so they can attract people from all cultural back-
grounds that can be integrated into the company’s culture and value system. Once these people are
hired and trained, companies must make a compelling statement for them to stay. All people seek an
environment that values indi- vidual contributions and acknowledges cultural differences. In
particular, people from diverse groups are very sensitive to their environment. They must feel that
their contributions are recognized and that they are fairly included in the company’s vision, goals,
leadership, values, and future strate- gies. Their satisfaction will be reflected in increased work
performance and long-term loyalty to their employer.
A successful diversity-focused succession planning process will con-
tribute to a strong, integrated culture that reinforces an organization’s vision, strategy, and goals. A
creative diversity-based succession planning process attracts and keeps the most talented
employees, provides outstanding returns to shareholders and stakeholders, and has a guiding
purpose that inspires loyalty and long-term commitment to the organization.