1. Do it now

If your chief executive leaves before you have a plan in place for their successor, you have left it too late. The succession planning should be ongoing for all senior positions. Start now and never stop.

2. Look internally

When a senior executive leaves, the temptation is to poach a replacement from elsewhere. There is an old-fashioned belief that there is always a better external candidate, because they’ve already done the job, whereas the internal candidates haven’t. but just as someone has been effective elsewhere in the past doesn’t mean they’ve got what your company needs in the future.

3. Develop a talent pool

Anointing a successor too far in advance can have a detrimental effect. If it looks like you are grooming one individual, then that individual becomes very marketable externally, so they may get headhunted. Other talented individuals may leave, and if the CEO doesn’t move on when expected, then you can become very boxed in. so you need a slate of internal candidates to choose from.

4. Be honest

Succession management should be transparent. Senior managers should be made aware of what is required of them if they want to progress into senior executive roles and invited to contribute to the process.

5. Promote diversity

If five years time, your company may still be struggling with the aftermath of the recession or it may be booming and looking to expand. It is impossible to predict what kind of leadership you will need.

Diversity doesn’t just mean ethnicity and gender, but also the kind of skills and work experience people have.

6. Protect services

Succession planning is about managing the very real risk to services that an ageing workforce created.

7. Visit business link

An interactive succession planning tool is available on the Government’s business advice website. Find out what to do next in each case and points users towards external advisers who may be able to help.

8. Have an induction process

Board members and senior executives recruited from outside the company may take a while to adapt to their new environment. Continued support during the bedding in process is necessary. You shouldn’t abandon new directors the minute they join the board.

9. Don’t forget specialist roles

Succession planning is not simply about replacing the chief executive. Your highest-billing lawyer or your head of engineering may not be your next CEO, but they may still be very difficult to replace. So your leadership development also needs to focus on specialist and technical roles.

10. Encourage sideways moves

Fast-tracked potential leaders may expect a steady upward career progression. But this can leave them short of the broad-based experience needed to oversee the company as a whole.