The reality for many organizations is that those in leadership positions will not be in those positions for very long, some are heading for retirement others will grow into new positions within and out of the organization. Many of these businesses do not have a clear line of succession or a plan to identify and train current employees to potentially lead in their place.  Part of great leadership is building up the team around you to lead when you move on.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity has researched what distinguishes high-performance organizations makes it clear that these top companies must prioritize three initiatives:

1) Accelerate and broaden leadership development;

2) focus that development on creating leaders who can effectively influence and collaborate cross-culturally;

3) establish deeper, more targeted levels of bench strength to fill the succession pipeline.

http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534358326