Labour and Lib Dem results raise succession planning concerns

Labour and Lib Dem results raise succession planning concerns

Succession Planning

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have suffered a disappointing General Election showing, raising concerns of succession planning in both parties.

Labour suffered heavy losses, with the majority of seats being taken by the Scottish National Party. Ed Milliband, who has been Labour’s leader since 2010, said his party had been overwhelmed by a “surge of nationalism”.

He continued: “Any personal disappointment I have at this result is as nothing compared to the sense of sorrow I have at the result Labour has achieved across the UK, and the sense of concern I have about the future.”

Because of this disappointing performance Milliband has resigned, causing concerns for the party to find a new leader.

However, the Liberal Democrats are faced with an even greater challenge. Nick Clegg’s party lost nearly all of their seats, resulting in just a handful of representatives.

Not only has this resulted in Clegg’s resignation, but it will also mean a small selection of successors for the party to choose from if they want a leader who has a seat.

In the corporate world leaders can be found externally if the talent doesn’t exist within, hopefully resulting in the best person for the job. However, in Government this isn’t the case. And so a party’s failure can become a vicious circle – a lack of seats, means a lack of choice, which means a potentially weaker leader and therefore less chance of success in the future.

However, Ben Chambers, Global Leadership Development Director at GSK believes that, within the pharmaceutical company, anyone has the potential to be a leader. A reassuring thought for  the less represented parties.

He says: “We have been doing a lot of work recently to make sure that Leadership is on the agenda, we have taken steps to define exactly what is required of leaders at each stage of our pipeline and we’ve got programmes in place to support leaders at those different transition points so that they have the skills necessary to do their job effectively.”

This is something that political parties may be able to adopt themselves in order to ensure that they always have strength at the top.

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