Succession Planning

Build a Stronger Leadership Pipeline With Better Talent Insight

Succession planning helps organizations prepare for the future by identifying employees who can grow into critical roles, understanding their development needs, and creating clear paths for advancement.

TTI Success Insights assessments give organizations a deeper understanding of the people who may be ready to take on greater responsibility. By examining behavior, motivators, emotional intelligence, judgment, and personal skills, TTI helps organizations identify development opportunities and prepare employees for future roles.

Using TTI's five assessment sciences, DISC, 12 Driving Forces, EQ, ACI, and DNA, organizations can create more informed succession plans and build a stronger internal talent pipeline.

What Is Succession Planning?

Effective succession planning goes beyond identifying someone who could eventually take over a position. It involves understanding what the future role requires, assessing the capabilities and characteristics of potential successors, identifying development needs, and giving employees opportunities to build the skills they will need.

A strong succession plan can help organizations:

• Identify potential successors for critical roles
• Understand employee strengths and development opportunities
• Prepare emerging leaders for greater responsibility
• Create targeted employee development plans
• Build a stronger internal talent pipeline
• Reduce disruption when key employees leave or change roles
• Give employees greater visibility into career growth opportunities
• Align employee development with future organizational needs

TTI assessments provide the insight organizations need to make succession development more intentional and actionable.

How TTI Assessments Support Succession Planning

Succession planning requires more than knowing who is performing well today. Organizations also need insight into what employees bring to a future role and where additional development may be needed.

TTI's five assessment sciences provide different perspectives on the individual:

DISC: Behaviors

DISC helps reveal how an individual's behavioral style may relate to the demands of a future role.

For succession planning, DISC can help organizations understand how an employee naturally approaches communication, tasks, people, pace, and their environment.

This can provide useful insight when an employee is preparing to move into a role with different behavioral demands.

12 Driving Forces: Motivators

12 Driving Forces helps organizations understand what motivates an employee and how those motivators may relate to the work required in a future role.

An employee may be highly capable in their current position but have different sources of motivation than those required by a future role. Understanding those motivators can support more productive career and development conversations.

EQ: Emotional Intelligence

As responsibilities increase, employees may face greater demands around communication, relationships, self-management, and navigating challenging situations.

TTI's EQ assessment measures the five dimensions of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social awareness, and social regulation.

These insights can help inform development as employees prepare for roles that require greater interpersonal responsibility.

ACI: Judgment

Succession planning also requires understanding how individuals approach situations and make decisions.

TTI's Acumen (ACI) assessment examines how individuals evaluate people, tasks, and systems when interpreting situations and making decisions.

This provides another perspective that can be incorporated into development conversations for employees preparing for more complex responsibilities.

DNA: Competencies

DNA measures 25 personal skills by development level, helping organizations identify which skills an employee has developed and where additional development may be beneficial.

For succession planning, this can help turn a general statement such as "needs more development" into a more specific conversation about the skills an employee can strengthen before taking on a future role.

Why Use Multiple Assessments for Succession Planning?

Behavior provides insight into how someone tends to operate. Motivators provide insight into what drives them. Emotional intelligence provides insight into how they manage themselves and interact with others. Acumen provides insight into how they evaluate situations and apply judgment. DNA provides insight into which personal skills are developed and where additional development may be needed.

Together, these perspectives create a more complete view of the employee and can help organizations develop more targeted succession plans.

TTI calls this its multi-science approach: using multiple assessment sciences to develop a deeper understanding of an individual rather than relying on a single measurement.

Use Assessments to Identify Development Opportunities

Succession planning should not simply identify who could move into a role. It should help answer a more useful question:

"What development does this person need to prepare for the role?"

TTI assessments can help organizations identify areas to explore across multiple dimensions.

For example, an employee preparing for a larger role may benefit from development related to:

• Communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Personal accountability
• Decision-making
• Adaptability
• Interpersonal effectiveness
• Strategic thinking
• Other personal skills required by the role

Assessment results can provide a starting point for development conversations, coaching, training, and on-the-job experiences.

The goal is to turn assessment insight into specific development actions.

Use Job Benchmarking to Understand Future Role Requirements

TTI's Job Benchmarking process can also support succession planning by helping organizations understand what a particular role requires.

TTI describes job benchmarking as the process of creating a profile for a position and measuring candidates or existing employees against that profile. TTI specifically identifies succession planning as one of the applications for job benchmarking, alongside role design, professional development, and reskilling.

The process is designed to create clarity around a role and its requirements. A job benchmark is developed through input from subject matter experts who understand the position and can establish what success in the role looks like.

For succession planning, this creates a useful foundation: understand the role, assess the employee, identify gaps, and develop the employee.

Rather than relying solely on assumptions about what someone will need in a future position, organizations can use a job benchmark to create a clearer picture of the role and then use assessment data to inform development.

TTI's benchmarking materials also emphasize that a benchmark is a starting point rather than an automatic decision. The purpose is to create clarity around the role and provide data that can inform talent conversations and development.

Build Development Plans for Future Roles

Assessment results become most valuable when they lead to action.

Once an organization understands the requirements of a future role and has insight into an employee's current capabilities, leaders can create a more targeted development plan.

A succession development process can include:

Succession Planning Is More Than Replacing a Leader

A strong succession strategy isn't only about replacing the CEO or filling an executive position.

Organizations can use succession planning to prepare talent for a variety of future roles, including:

• Executive positions
• Department leadership
• Functional leadership
• Management positions
• Critical individual-contributor roles
• Specialized positions
• Emerging leadership roles

The earlier organizations understand their talent and development needs, the more time they have to prepare employees for increased responsibility.

Support Career Growth Alongside Succession Planning

Succession planning can also contribute to employee engagement by helping people see opportunities for growth within the organization.

When employees understand potential career paths and have clarity around the capabilities they need to develop, development becomes more intentional.

TTI assessments can support those conversations by helping employees understand:

• How they naturally work
• What motivates them
• How they manage themselves and others
• How they approach decisions
• Which personal skills they have developed
• Where they can continue to grow

This makes succession planning more than an organizational exercise. It can become part of an ongoing approach to career development and professional growth.

From Assessment Insight to Succession Readiness

Assessment data does not replace the succession conversation. It strengthens it.

TTI assessments can help organizations move from broad questions such as "Could this person be our next leader?" to more actionable questions:

• What does the future role require?
• What does this employee already bring to the role?
• Which areas may require further development?
• What experiences would help prepare this person?
• What support will they need?
• How can we measure progress?

This creates a more intentional path between identifying talent and developing talent.

TTI's Succession Planning Assessment Tools

TTI offers five assessment sciences that can contribute to succession planning.

TTI specifically presents these five sciences as tools for succession planning: DISC for behaviors, 12 Driving Forces for motivators, EQ for emotional intelligence, ACI for judgment, and DNA for competencies.

Frequently Asked Questions About Succession Planning Assessments

What is a succession planning assessment?

A succession planning assessment provides insight into an employee's behaviors, motivators, emotional intelligence, judgment, or personal skills to help organizations understand development needs for future roles.

How can assessments help with succession planning?

Assessments can help organizations understand employees more deeply, identify development opportunities, and create targeted development plans for people preparing for future responsibilities. TTI uses five assessment sciences, DISC, 12 Driving Forces, EQ, ACI, and DNA, to provide different perspectives on an employee.

What TTI assessments are used for succession planning?

TTI identifies five primary assessments for succession planning: DISC, 12 Driving Forces, EQ, ACI, and DNA. Each measures a different dimension of the individual, including behaviors, motivators, emotional intelligence, judgment, and personal skills.

What is the role of DISC in succession planning?

DISC can help organizations understand an employee's behavioral style and how that style may relate to the demands of a future role. It can provide insight into communication, pace, task orientation, and interactions with others.

How can 12 Driving Forces support succession planning?

12 Driving Forces helps identify what motivates an employee. Understanding those motivators can provide additional context when employees are being considered for future roles and can inform career and development conversations.

How does EQ support leadership succession?

EQ measures emotional intelligence through five dimensions: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social awareness, and social regulation. These insights can help inform development for employees preparing for roles with greater interpersonal responsibilities.

How does DNA help with succession planning?

DNA measures 25 personal skills by development level. It can help organizations identify skills that are developed and areas where an employee may benefit from additional development as they prepare for a future role.

What is job benchmarking in succession planning?

TTI's Job Benchmarking process creates a profile of a specific position and can be used to measure candidates or existing employees against that profile. TTI identifies succession planning as one application of its job benchmarking process.

Can succession planning assessments create a development plan?

Assessment results can provide the information needed to identify development opportunities, but the assessment itself is not the development plan. The most useful approach is to connect assessment insights to specific goals, coaching, training, and workplace experiences.

Why use a multi-science approach for succession planning?

Different assessments provide different perspectives. A multi-science approach combines insights about behavior, motivation, emotional intelligence, judgment, and personal skills to create a broader understanding of an employee and their development needs.

Is succession planning only for executives?

No. Succession planning can be used to prepare employees for a variety of critical roles throughout an organization. The process can support executive succession, management development, emerging leaders, functional leadership, and other roles where continuity and internal talent development are important.