Commercial Integrator + Security Sales July 2024 - 10

AV AS A BUSINESS
Is Your Future Leadership Pipeline Good Enough?
Many integration companies need an honest assessment of their readiness when it comes to
succession plans and future leadership. By Tom LeBlanc
HOW WOULD YOU RATE your
company's leadership succession
planning? If you're like most integration
companies, there is room for
improvement.
Our integration industry is lucky
to have many companies that boast
tried-and-true leaders, but NSCA oſt en
hears from companies that don't feel as
though they have their next-generation
leadership primed and ready to lead.
That's a problem. NSCA, Commercial
Integrator and Security Sales & Integration
recently polled a segmented group of
young integration industry professionals
to learn their thoughts about next-generation
leadership. The fi ndings were
discussed during an NSCA Business
Series webinar with CI, entitled " What
Do Next-Generation Integration Leaders
Need? " That webinar is archived on
CommercialIntegrator.com.
Let's look at some fi ndings:
■ 76% of those surveyed feel that their
organization has capable future company
leaders currently on the team.
■ However, that pipeline of future leaders
isn't necessarily robust; only 41%
say it's very or somewhat strong.
■ In terms of how forthcoming current
leadership is about succession
planning, 58% say they're at least
sometimes privy to conversations
about future leadership.
■ Very few are confi dent that their
future leaders are getting the
training they need, with 18% saying
they're " not at all " confi dent and
68% indicating they're " somewhat "
confi dent.
■ Many of the young professionals
perceive a generation gap between
themselves and existing leadership
that makes any leadership planning
diffi cult. Nearly 40% say that gap is
" particularly signifi cant in the integration
industry, " and only 21% say
that it's not a signifi cant factor.
Planning for Succession Planning
This is not just about executive leadership.
It's about preparing your talented team
members to progress into manager-, director-
and any C-suite roles. It's about ensuring
that your integration company continually
boosts its ability to lead all segments of the
business. Strong leadership helps integration
companies be innovative, nimble, relevant
and profi table. It also helps to create a
strong company culture that fosters loyal
team members. It's a formula for improving
retention and keeping your A-players.
Aſt er the NSCA/CI webinar, NSCA conducted
a follow-up webinar off ering tips
on succession planning for integration
company leaders and next-generation
leaders. Panelists emphasized that an
impactful succession strategy is a longterm
plan, including many elements:
■ Identifying leadership roles and
tasks. We all create job descriptions
for team members. But many integration
company leaders haven't taken
the time to truly document what they
do and what future leaders will need
to accomplish. This is an important
step not just for the leader but also
for director and leadership positions.
■ What do you look for in a leader?
This is about understanding needs.
What skills are important to run or
help lead your particular integration
company? Do you have unique needs,
such as training in a particular area?
Are you realizing that you need to
look externally for future leaders?
WHAT'S NEXT?
■ Find the archived webinar, " What Do Next-Generation Integration Leaders
Need?, " on CommercialIntegrator.com.
■ NSCA members can fi nd the archived webinar, " How to Improve Your
Future Leadership Pipeline, " at NSCA.org.
■ If you see yourself growing into a leadership position, join the rising stars
attending NSCA's inaugural XBO Experience, scheduled for Nov. 12-13 at
Georgia Tech, by registering at NSCA.org.
10 Commercial Integrator+Security Sales & Integration | July 2024
■ How do you assess candidates for
future leadership? This is an important
step in helping to avoid investing
time and training in somebody who
won't be an ideal leader. It's vital to
learn how to identify where candidates
have strength and capability
gaps. It's also important to recognize
the diff erence between team members
who are high performers versus
those who boast high potential. High
performance doesn't always equate
to being a good leader.
The webinar discussed leveraged
expertise from an NSCA Business
Accelerator in the human resources
space, Insperity, and featured input from
integrators whose businesses are going
through these processes.
As a trade association, NSCA is
extremely focused on next-generation
leadership. The gap between typical
member companies' established leadership
and those who can potentially lead in
the future is a signifi cant business challenge.
The data from the survey zeroes in
on what's important to next-generation
leaders and what they believe they need
in terms of training to be successful.
Both webinars are great precursors
to NSCA's new conference aimed at our
industry's rising leaders: XBO Experience,
from Nov. 12-13 in Atlanta. CI
TOM LeBLANC is the executive director of
NSCA. To learn about becoming an NSCA
member, visit NSCA.org.
http://www.CommercialIntegrator.com http://www.NSCA.org http://www.CommercialIntegrator.com http://www.NSCA.org http://www.NSCA.org
Commercial Integrator + Security Sales July 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator + Security Sales July 2024
