Leadership Development Checklist

• List the 20 roles whose absence would meaningfully hurt the business
• Gap-fill the ones without three candidates — either through hiring or accelerated development
• Almost none have done it for the next 19 roles

For each, name three internal candidates who could fill it within 12 months (with training) or 6 months (with promotion). This is succession planning without the ceremony. Most mid-market companies have done this for the CEO.

• High-potential employees learn by doing hard things — running a P&L, launching a new market, leading a crisis, integrating an acquisition
• Training is a supplement, not the substance

Every leader identified as 'top three candidate' should have a stretch assignment active right now. If they don't, you're developing them on paper, not in practice.

• Once a year, the executive team reviews the top 50 leaders in the business: performance, potential, succession candidacy, development plan, flight risk
• Two days
• Hard conversations
• Honest labels
• Decisions on who stays, grows, or moves on

Done well, this is the most impactful 16 hours of executive time in the year — and done not at all is why mid-market companies get surprised by resignations every quarter.