So many of my clients struggle to initiate, keep up with, or proactively plan for executive succession, and through my work, I have crystalized a perspective on the 5 biggest things that get in the way of impactful succession planning. This is a serious issue because the cost of avoiding your succession plan or getting it wrong can be potentially catastrophic to a business.

If recent history has reinforced any message about our work, it’s that leadership matters.

A lot has to come together for your true authentic self to be the effective, right choice for your organization and team. Recently, I’ve found myself in a few separate situations with clients, senior leaders from large organizations, where I’ve recommended that they do NOT bring their authentic selves to work.

When you’re the boss, effective communication with your team can be especially fraught. We all know the difficulties team members have telling their manager bad news or disagreeing with a senior executive at their company, even when it’s an important message the leader should hear.

We recently wrote a call to action for leaders: despite the challenges we are all facing at work, this is not the time to put employee development plans on hold. It is easy to think that with COVID-19, there is just too much going on to expect our employees to think about their development.

With the world in the state it is, this is an easy time for businesses to put off the things that aren’t mission-critical, and while we’re all adjusting to a new way of working, development has taken a back seat. Some may say that was inevitable, but we call B.S. on that. Making sure that your workforce—and especially your highest potential employees—continue to learn, grow, and get better at their jobs remains centrally important.

Like many of you, we are adjusting to a new normal here at Spectacular at Work as Chicago is a “shelter in place” locale since the start of the week. As we deal with the ramifications, we are also dealing with the professional fall-out. Being spectacular at work has rarely been so important

CEO succession planning is not easy. Knowing what your company will face in the future, trying to prepare executives to run your company, and then selecting the best possible candidate from a group of internal contenders (and comparing them with highly qualified outsiders) is a truly complex challenge.

Still, the perks, confidence, and security that come with being a HI PO are pretty great. So, what does it take to become a high potential? Here’s a quick list that will get you back out there doing all of those things that will (hopefully) get you on that list.

Being a HI PO is a great thing for a career. It is a designation, more often made informally, that indicates who the company is betting on to become their future rock star. There is an expectation, or at least a hope, that these folks will eventually lead the company. Do you know if you’re considered a HI PO?

One of the hardest situations a manager can face is giving feedback to a person with a wildly inaccurate perception of their abilities or performance.

Leaders fret about whether they have the talent they need to compete in the ever-changing market in which they play. This is one of those nagging concerns for CEOs. One of the reasons this concern doesn’t go away is many CEOs recognize that their company doesn’t have the talent management skills that enable a stable and predictable flow of quality leaders.

It’s about making people a competitive advantage

Companies sometimes have to make difficult business decisions. One of my clients is a company like that. They recently needed to make major expense cuts, in the range of half a billion dollars, and this meant dozens of policy changes and lots of changes to the way that the company’s procurement policy and vendor management works. These large, systematic cuts are a big deal and have a real impact on the strength of the company, its ability to invest and compete in the future, and so they should be easy to explain.

I wonder when work first became a “four-letter word.” When did people start hating their jobs? Was it one of the first hunters, who didn’t really like hunting but had no choice, it was hunt or go hungry? Whoever was first, they certainly started a trend because today it’s O.K. to hate our work.

As the conversation moved from one topic to another, we eventually landed on the topic that nearly all of these types of conversations bump into: how can I be better at providing more real-time feedback in order to help people I work with achieve more?

Feedback at work is a tricky, tricky thing. Most of the time we either aren’t honest enough, or we don’t deliver feedback in a way that will help someone grow.

The short answer: Yes.

“Hire slow, fire fast.” Have you ever heard that? Take your time with hiring, so you make sure that any potential employees are really right for your team. And when someone you’ve hired isn’t working out, get them out quickly. But firing someone isn’t as simple as that.