5. Talent & Succession
Succession slates that are real
Coverage the board will ask about
Use when
Critical-role coverage the board will ask about
- 1
Critical roles
Value or risk-critical, not just senior; keep the list short
- 2
Ready now
Could start Monday; named, told, retained
- 3
Ready 1-2 yrs
Named with a real development plan being executed
- 4
Ready 3+
Longer bets; diversity of the pipeline judged here
- 5
Test annually
Slates stress-tested: would we appoint them?
“When a role opened last year, did we appoint from the slate?”
How to use it
The honesty test: when a role opened last year, did we appoint from the slate? If not, the slates are fiction. Ready-now people who are never moved leave; succession without visible movement becomes a retention risk generator. Report coverage ratio (critical roles with at least one appointable ready-now) as the headline metric.
Card details
- Model type
- Sequence
- Origin status
- Synthesis
- Content last reviewed
- 28 July 2026
Origin
SynthesisStandard succession practice; the appointment honesty test and coverage-ratio metric added here.