Plansmith Blog

There’s one topic I hear consistently come up in discussions amongst financial institution leaders: succession planning. Or, as I call it, The Succession Elephant – the awkward, looming, unsolved topic occupying space in boardrooms across the country. Leaders know turnover is happening. They know it’s an aggressive risk. Yet they often don’t know where to start tackling it.

This very topic was a core focus of my breakout session at the FMS Forum in New Orleans this past June. Because it's so critical – yet rarely nipped in the bud – I wanted to share a strategic framework for solving 'the succession elephant' before facing unexpected vacancies and their broader implications without a safety net in place.

If we’re being honest, the annual planning season is rarely met with a standing ovation. For many financial institution leaders, it feels like a chore – a box to check for the regulators or a heavy document destined to collect dust on a shelf.

The problem is that many management teams are still operating under the old rules of planning. These misconceptions keep brilliant leaders buried in "spreadsheet land," where they spend their time managing data instead of managing the organization.

If you want to move from a static plan to a dynamic strategy, it is time to debunk these five common myths.