When Mel Karmazin resigned his position as COO and president of Viacom in 2004, he ended what the Wall Street Journal labeled as "four years of constant tension and sniping." Even though Karmazin was the expected successor to Sumner Redstone, the founder and CEO of Viacom, it was an open secret that he and Redstone did not see eye to eye. Karmazin's leaving did not ameliorate the tension, however; it has created another succession nightmare. Even now, four years, later a successor to Redstone has yet to be anointed.

 

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Succession Blues

Failure to name a clear successor seeps below the top floor. Bob Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot and once a successor in running to Jack Welch at General Electric , told a reporter for the Wall Street Journal that the competition for the top spot was like "playing in the Super Bowl, the last two minutes, for two years.... You know you're being looked at through a magnifying glass."

Well, if it's tough on the leader, it is also stressful for the folks underneath; they get drawn into rival camps. Instead of being able to focus on the work, subordinates are often asked, whether they like it or not, to choose sides between one heir apparent or another. Worse, those in the running for higher positions may ask their teams to withhold information or refuse work assignments from a rival's teams. It makes for lousy work conditions and detracts from productivity to say the least.

Competition among individuals and teams over ideas is positive and even healthy for the organization because it can stimulate people to think differently in the pursuit of good solutions. But when competition among rivals turns destructive, it causes friction with heat so severe it melts everything in its path, including people. Heaven help the direct reports of the heir apparent who did not get the top slot. Siberia may seem a warm and welcoming place to those who got caught on the wrong side of the succession plan.

It does not have to be this way. While managers can have little input into succession at the top, they can have much input into their own successors. Here are some things for managers consider: