MD calls for leaders to think about succession planning
‘Are you building your organisation?’
This is one of the critical questions that persons who head up any organisation need to ask themselves.
Speaking with The Barbados Advocate on Saturday after the conclusion of the presentation of certificates for “Leadership and Succession Planning” at the Barbados Council for the Disabled (BCD). The Managing Director of Caribbean Catalyst, Rosalind Jackson, said that it is imperative that leaders do not just think of the present, but also how do they plan on ensuring that their organisation is sustainable in the future and this calls for succession planning.
This was included in the last session, she said. “The last session was: ‘Are we in all of these organisations serving the community of disabled bodies and are these organisations vibrant or not?’ How are we growing them? How are we building succession? How are we developing as a people – you know – because if we have the same people that we have all the time and the organisations are not attracting new members – why not?”
As a result, Jackson said that she had done a lot of work on showing the participants areas critical to this succession planning, such as how to attract new and younger members.
“So we did a lot in terms of how do we target and grow young members and include them more, and it is not be a sort of sterile old time every time the Board meets, but to engage members differently. So those were the three areas of focus, beginning with me, looking at my organisation’s reality and then, how can I really rev up my organisation? So today’s presentation of certificates of participation, when I was asked to do that, I said that I would only do it if the attendees shared what we have done with what we have covered in those sessions. So that was the outcome,” she explained.
The Caribbean Catalyst Managing Director said that the participants responded well to the sessions. “The sessions were very inactive. My style is very much not to teach and preach, but my role as a facilitator in any facilitation that I do, is to draw out what is already within people and so you know, I have to find creative ways to draw stuff out of them because if I just put information into you, you soon forget it, but if I draw it out from you, it is in you, it is a part of you and that is very much my facilitation style.”
The workshops were held on three Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. from the end of April to the beginning of July, with the first session focused on how the leaders of these various organisations can improve their personal leadership.
There were 22 participants altogether with approximately 12 of them attending all three sessions and there will be follow up work done via the BCD for the members, said the Managing Director of Caribbean Catalyst.
She said that this is the first time that she has been called upon by the Council to hold such a session, but believes that they will continue to organise more of these sessions as they are intent on strengthening their member organisations.