# Succession Planning

> Build succession plans for critical roles — identifying successors, readiness gaps, and development actions. Use when reducing key-person risk or preparing leadership benches.

- Skill: `itsual/succession-planning` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add itsual/succession-planning`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/itsual/succession-planning/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: itsual (https://skillmd.com/u/itsual)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/itsual/succession-planning

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# Succession Planning

## Overview

Succession planning ensures critical roles can be filled without crisis. It combines talent assessment, development, and honest readiness judgments.

## When to Use

- Critical role risk reviews
- Leadership bench planning
- Pre-retirement and growth-driven vacancy prep
- Board or executive talent discussions

## Core Practices

- Identify critical roles (not every manager seat)
- Assess succession candidates with evidence, not only politics
- Rate readiness (ready now / 1–2 years / stretch)
- Create development plans for gaps
- Review plans on a cadence; update for attrition and growth
- Avoid creating entitlement or demotivation through secrecy mismanagement

## Principles

- A list of names is not a succession plan
- Diversity of bench is a resilience issue
- Emergency successors and strategic successors may differ
- Development must be real, not aspirational paperwork

## Verification

- [ ] Critical roles are identified
- [ ] Successors and readiness are documented
- [ ] Development actions are tracked