Life is unpredictable, and when you fail to anticipate sudden changes, it can leave your team in a tight spot. Building out succession pipelines for the various roles in your organization not only allows you to know who will step up if someone abruptly becomes unavailable, but it also grows your team members’ leadership skills.
“By proactively developing a bench of trained, engaged future leaders, we’re able to fill key positions quickly and confidently, maintaining our momentum and navigating challenges without disruption,” says Jim Tuzzolino, Southern division president for Ruppert Landscape, headquartered in Laytonsville, Maryland.
There are a multitude of reasons a key role may unexpectedly need to be filled.
A debilitating illness or a family emergency can cause a team member to be unavailable for a period of time.
“This happened to somebody recently with us,” says Brian Helgoe, CEO and founder of Monarch Landscape Companies, based in Los Angeles, California. “Their parents got really sick, and they don’t have anyone to take care of them, and they’re gone for six months. We still love the person, and they’re going to get a job when they come back, but we had to have a plan in place to take care of that. Sometimes your life is more important than your job, and you have to account for that.”
Burnout, resignations or even an employee’s passing are other events that can prompt an immediate leadership change. Even more positive situations, like the opening of a new branch or winning a new contract, can trigger the need for succession pipelines.
“I think the faster a company tries to grow, the more talent reserve they have to have,” says Kurt Bland, president of Bland Landscaping Company, based in Apex, North Carolina. “We grew 33% last year. That’s why we needed six branch managers.”
Consequences of Failing to Prepare
Byron McFarland, founding principal of The McFarland Group, which specializes in business succession, notes that many owners find themselves so caught up in fighting fires or chasing new opportunities that they struggle to focus on employee development.
“I think probably the most aspirational aspect of business is development,” McFarland says. “However, the cost of development is time, and usually the people that they’re pulling out for development are the ones that are doing the most work. It’s really tough for small businesses to incorporate a development plan that would result in orderly succession in the absence of key role players.”
However, failing to identify and prepare employees who can step up into higher leadership roles can have a serious impact on your business.
“Leadership gaps can lead to lost productivity, decreased morale, and a drop in service consistency,” Tuzzolino says. “Teams may feel uncertain, and customers may sense the disruption.”
Helgoe says that promoting team members into higher roles without proper training puts your customer ties at risk.
“The consequences of not having some people to step into these roles tend to be failure on the project,” McFarland says. “If it’s a construction project, and you lose somebody who is key. Then you either A) bring in somebody else from another project over to run it, or B) you’re elevating somebody that’s on the site to that role. Either way, there’s some risk.”
If you opt for an external hire to fill a gap, they may not fully understand your culture and end up driving away some of the people who work under them.
Helgoe adds that you can also lose employees by failing to let them know where they can move up.
“I think if you’re not paying attention to people and building out succession plans and telling them you want them to evolve and work towards things, I think that the best people will find other employers that will do that,” Helgoe says.
Bland agrees that when owners hold on to power and authority for too long, they can lose talented leaders.
“The business never achieves its potential because the owner doesn’t get out of their own way, meaning they become entrenched in their own success, because they work in the business all the time, versus on the business, and they can’t delegate effectively,” Bland says. “They end up a technical contractor who’s self-employed versus building the business that they set out to build.”
Developing Leaders From Within
Creating an intentional succession plan for your key roles requires true investment in your people and letting them know the potential you see in them.
“Invest in their success and help them get the experience that they will need to get to the next level,” says Chris Psencik, partner and vice president of McFarlin Standford, which provides business coaching to landscape companies. “Some of the greatest lessons I have learned in my career came from someone who saw my potential and was willing to invest the time, effort and energy in helping me develop those skills.”
With Ruppert Landscape, they created their associate branch manager (AMB) position as a way to provide a structured path for high-potential mid-level managers to gain the experience and training needed to succeed as a branch manager.
“Today, we have 15 ABMs across the company who are not only preparing for future leadership opportunities but are also actively contributing to the success of their branches by supporting day-to-day operations and easing the workload of their branch managers,” Tuzzolino says. “This dual-purpose role strengthens our leadership pipeline while reinforcing operational continuity.”
They also launched their Partner Leadership Development Program two years ago. This program is for branch, regional, and corporate managers. The three-year curriculum is designed to build essential leadership competencies such as developing people, communicating clearly, thinking strategically, fostering collaboration, driving accountability, motivating and inspiring others, and building high-performing teams. Tuzzolino says the program also helps their leaders form strong connections with their peers.
“The impact of this investment is already evident, as participants bring fresh ideas and best practices back to their teams — keeping our succession pipeline strong, agile, and future-ready,” Tuzzolino says.
Helgoe says they concentrate on developing key employees’ interpersonal skills as well as any specific area an up-and-coming team member is struggling with.
“We really want to go focus and problem-solve on what to do,” Helgoe says. “It’s very practical coaching.”
Bland says they hold sessions on intra-company communication, conflict resolution, and how to communicate effectively with boards of directors and HOAs as well as on-the-job training.
“When we’re working with the regional managers, we’re talking about topics that are much more leadership focused, much more big picture focused, because at their level, they’ve really got to be able to see beyond just a branch, because they’re managing four or five branches,” Bland says.
If you are trying to equip field staff with the skills to move up in the company, McFarland recommends teaching them how to communicate clearly and anticipate upcoming needs on jobsites.
“How would you, as a field person, be developed to understand the scope?” McFarland says. “It would only because be because somebody told you this is what’s happening. That would mean that that person communicated with you what they see, and then they expect you to help along the way in the future.”
McFarland says the most important skill a field leader can pass along to the employees they are grooming for a higher role is a shared awareness of best practices. Instead of simply ordering people around, explaining the why can help them understand the bigger picture.
“When someone advances from the field into supervision, they are learning to manage,” Bland says. “At that point, it’s not so much about leading, it’s more about managing, holding people accountable, making sure systems are followed, driving results and using the tools and systems that we provide people.”
Advice for Others
Don’t wait for a crisis to take one of your key players off the board.
“Leadership development isn’t a last-minute fix; it’s a long-term investment,” Tuzzolino says. “By creating a culture where managers are mentors, feedback is welcomed, and team members are empowered and given frequent opportunities to grow, your team will understand there’s a path forward and will be committed to your company’s success.”
McFarland recommends reviewing your bench often to see who is displaying your core values and the capacity to move up. Bland stresses you shouldn’t plan in a vacuum. Talk to the employees you want to move into key roles.
“When someone plans in a bubble and they don’t hear out the other party, and they don’t have these hypothetical ‘what if’ type of conversations that then lead to a plan, then they’re only solving for part of the puzzle, and they don’t control all the cards,” Bland says.
Helgoe adds that if you want a quality team, it’s something you have to build over the years with training.
“Real performance reviews have to be in place,” Helgoe says. “Real coaching has to be in place. Real open dialog has to happen. If you want to grow your business and you don’t really want to suffer from mediocrity, I think succession planning is a big piece of it.”
This article was published in the September/October issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
