Succession planning is a critical part of filling leadership roles in the workforce. Leaders have been making decisions since the beginning of time. The term leader has many faces in life. Whether on a battlefield in ancient times or in a modern corporation running a multimillion-dollar business, leadership styles were used by leaders or managers to get results. Effective leader succession planning creates the availability of experienced employees in all areas of an organization. When leaders talk about performance, we look at our business environment. How can we improve our use of the performance process to strengthen our high-performance workforce? This positive impact is created by employee involvement or empowerment. These types of leadership engage employees to have a greater ability to impact work quality, costs, customer satisfaction and innovation. In turn, we can use these performance measures to tie compensation programs to strengthening a pay-for-performance culture. People are the fundamental element needed to thrive and grow in the business environment. Key steps in the succession planning process begin with goals set at the CEO level and passed down to different department levels. High-level goals are broken down by the lower-level manager to create clarity on department-specific goals. These objectives will be developed by department managers with their supervisors. These objectives are developed using four established guidelines; The first is line of sight, which allows employees to align their work with the company and see value in their contributions. This allows people to evaluate their progress throughout the year in an objective manner. Second, employee development, which creates opportunities for… planning the knowledge, communication, and decision making that a successful leader brings to an organization, is one of the most valuable resources. References Behan , B. ( 2009, October 29). CEO Succession Planning: The Big Handoff. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from the National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/succession+planning+Hand/2159505/story.htmlNye, J. S. (2008). The power to lead. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Prokopeak, M. (2010, November 6). The politics of power. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from Talent Management: http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/the_politics_of_powerSalopek, J. (2011, July 21). Article on succession planning. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from Bussiness Specialist Focusing on Human Resource, Strategy and Board Governance: http://salopekconsulting.blogspot.com/2011/07/succession-planning-article.html