Succession planning is not a list of names beneath an org chart. It is a disciplined process for understanding critical roles, future capability, readiness, risk and the development moves that build a stronger bench.

Course Overview

This program develops the talent-management and succession capability needed by women in HR, Talent and business leadership roles. It focuses on the quality of talent decisions rather than on administrative process alone.

Participants work with realistic talent-review situations involving critical roles, readiness, potential, evidence, development, internal mobility and succession risk.

Organizations can use the course for HR/Talent teams, business leaders participating in talent reviews, succession committees and women preparing for People leadership.

B2B course snapshot

Where this program fits

Best fit

Women in HR, Talent, People leadership and business roles involved in talent reviews or succession

Delivery

Live classroom, live online, or private in-house delivery with flexible duration.

Built around

Critical roles, talent evidence, readiness, potential, succession risk, development moves and internal mobility

Take back to work

A stronger succession and talent-review framework for a selected population

Built for Corporate Cohorts

Private delivery can be aligned to the sponsor’s capability goals, participant roles, internal frameworks, business priorities and real workplace scenarios. HR, L&D, Talent and functional leaders can use the program as a standalone cohort or as part of a wider academy, succession pathway or women-in-leadership portfolio.

What Female-Forward Means Here

The program supports women who influence high-stakes talent decisions and need to challenge assumptions, demand evidence and connect development choices to future business capability.

What Participants Will Learn

Identify critical roles
Prioritize roles where vacancy or weak bench strength creates real business risk.

Assess talent with evidence
Separate performance, potential, readiness and aspiration.

Improve talent reviews
Use consistent criteria and stronger challenge.

Map succession risk
Understand depth, readiness and vulnerability.

Design development moves
Use stretch work, mobility, sponsorship and experience deliberately.

Connect talent to workforce strategy
Align succession decisions with future capability needs.

Capability journey

From insight to workplace application

Find the critical roles

Assess the bench

Challenge the evidence

Build the pipeline

Course Outline

Module 1: Talent Management as a Business System

Clarify how talent decisions create organizational capacity.

Critical roles
Future capability
Talent flows
Business risk

Module 2: Performance, Potential and Readiness

Use distinct evidence for distinct questions.

Track record
Learning agility
Scope readiness
Aspiration

Module 3: Talent Reviews and Calibration

Improve decision quality in the room.

Criteria
Evidence
Bias
Constructive challenge

Module 4: Succession Planning

Build depth rather than a single replacement name.

Bench strength
Readiness horizons
Role risk
Contingency

Module 5: Development and Internal Mobility

Turn talent decisions into action.

Stretch assignments
Lateral moves
Sponsorship
Experience plans

Module 6: Talent Action Plan

Apply the framework to a live population.

Critical roles
Talent risks
Development moves
Review cadence

Who Should Attend

Women Talent and succession professionals
Women HR business partners
Business leaders participating in talent reviews
Organizations developing future People leaders

Organizational Benefits

Improve succession depth and transparency
Strengthen talent-review quality
Reduce bias through clearer evidence standards
Connect development investment to critical roles
Build stronger internal mobility and leadership pipelines

Work products

Tools participants can use at work

Critical-role matrix

Talent evidence guide

Succession risk map

Development-move planner

Talent review action plan

B2B Deployment Options

Use the program as a private cohort, as one component of a structured Women at Work pathway, or inside a function-specific academy. Multi-location live-online delivery can support geographically distributed teams.

Delivery Format

The program is live and instructor-led. It can be delivered in a classroom, live online, or in-house. Duration is flexible and should reflect participant level, selected depth, organizational objective and the amount of applied practice required.

For HR, L&D and business leaders: Explore in-house training or request a customized cohort.

Business Problems This Program Is Designed to Address

This course is designed around workplace problems that organizations can observe in real roles. The aim is to give participants a structured way to diagnose situations, make stronger decisions, practise difficult conversations and return to work with tools that can be used immediately.

Succession plans list names but not readinessThe program separates nomination from evidence and helps leaders assess what experience, capability and exposure a person still needs before taking a critical role.

Talent reviews reward visibility more than potentialParticipants learn to ask for evidence, compare criteria and challenge assumptions so talent decisions are less dependent on reputation alone.

Critical roles are not clearly definedThe course helps organizations distinguish strategically important roles from simply senior or difficult-to-fill positions.

Development actions are vagueParticipants convert talent decisions into concrete assignments, mobility moves, sponsorship, mentoring and capability-building experiences.

Applied Practice and Scenario Work

The learning design uses realistic management situations rather than abstract discussion alone. Private cohorts can calibrate the scenarios to the participant population, industry and operating context.

Two successors are rated equally but have different gapsParticipants compare readiness, role demands and development moves rather than forcing an artificial ranking.

A high performer is assumed to be high potentialParticipants separate current performance, aspiration, learning agility, scope and future-role requirements.

A critical role has no ready successorParticipants build short-term contingency and longer-term pipeline actions rather than simply recording the risk.

A talent review shows the same names repeatedlyParticipants examine access to stretch work, sponsorship and visibility and design a broader evidence-based pipeline.

Application principle: participants should leave each major topic able to explain what they would do differently in a real role, which stakeholders they would involve, what evidence they would use and how they would know whether the action worked.

For HR, L&D and Program Sponsors

Talent Management and Succession Planning for Women Leaders can be delivered as a standalone private cohort or embedded inside a broader capability pathway. The sponsor can define the target population, role level, business context, expected behaviours, priority scenarios and work products before delivery.

A stronger deployment does more than count attendance. Participants can apply one tool to live work, discuss the result with their manager and bring the learning into an existing talent, performance, project or functional review. This connects development to execution without making unsupported ROI promises.

Before the cohort: define the capability gap and participant profile.
During delivery: use role-relevant scenarios, practice and work products.
After delivery: reinforce application through manager conversations, peer review or sponsor follow-up.
At pathway level: combine this program with adjacent courses where participants need broader capability.

Pricing

The public-course fee below follows the current Women at Work offering structure for Saudi Arabia and the GCC. Program length and structure can vary by cohort and delivery context. Public fees exclude VAT or other applicable taxes.

$4,500

Per delegate
Individual booking

$3,825

Per delegate
3 delegates (15% off)

$3,750

Per delegate
6 delegates (pay for 5)

For in-house or customized delivery, request a proposal.

How This Fits Into a Wider Development Pathway

For corporate cohorts, the tools and action plans from this program can feed into development plans, talent reviews, project reviews, functional academies or sponsor debriefs. The course can also be paired with adjacent programs so the learning journey reflects the capability the organization is actually trying to build.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we use our own organizational scenarios?

Yes. Private cohorts can be calibrated around your operating context, role levels and common workplace situations while protecting sensitive information.

How should managers support participants after the course?

Agree one or two work applications, then review what the participant tried, what changed and what further support is needed.

Can this be combined with other Women at Work courses?

Yes. It can sit inside a multi-course pathway for managers, high-potential women, functional leaders or another defined population.

Part of the Women at Work pathway. Explore the full Women at Work professional development pathway.

Can this be delivered only for our organization?

Yes. Private delivery can be calibrated to the participant population, business context, capability priorities and internal terminology.

Is the duration fixed?

No. Delivery depth and schedule are adapted to the cohort and organizational objective.

How Participants Work During the Program

Talent Management and Succession Planning for Women Leaders is designed as an applied learning experience rather than a sequence of lectures. Participants move repeatedly between concept, diagnosis, practice and workplace application. The exact balance can be adjusted for the cohort, but the learning design should keep participants working with decisions and situations that resemble the responsibilities they actually hold.

1. Diagnose

Participants begin by defining the real problem, decision or capability gap rather than accepting the first description at face value.

2. Practise

They test language, analysis, tools or decision approaches in a low-risk setting and receive challenge from the facilitator and peers.

3. Build

Participants create a work product linked to their role rather than leaving with notes alone. Relevant outputs can include Critical-role matrix, Talent evidence guide, Succession risk map, Development-move planner, Talent review action plan.

4. Challenge

Assumptions, blind spots and trade-offs are surfaced through peer review, facilitator questions and comparison with alternative approaches.

5. Apply

Each participant identifies where the learning will be used, who needs to be involved, what action happens first and what evidence will show progress.

The core pathway covers Talent Management as a Business System, Performance, Potential and Readiness, Talent Reviews and Calibration, Succession Planning, Development and Internal Mobility, Talent Action Plan. For private cohorts, examples and practice can be weighted toward the modules most relevant to the sponsor’s capability priorities without reducing the integrity of the wider program.

Manager Reinforcement and Evidence of Application

A course becomes more valuable when participants have a clear opportunity to use the learning after delivery. For employer-sponsored cohorts, TheSkillGrid can design the program so managers and sponsors know what participants are expected to practise without turning development into unnecessary administration.

Before delivery: the participant and manager can identify one current situation where the course is likely to be useful. This gives the learning an immediate workplace anchor.
Immediately after delivery: the participant selects one or two tools or behaviours to use first, rather than trying to apply every concept simultaneously.
During the following work cycle: the manager can ask what was tried, what response it produced, what became clearer and what still needs adjustment.
At sponsor level: patterns across the cohort can inform future learning priorities, manager support or pathway design without claiming that attendance alone caused a business result.

What Good Application Can Look Like

Evidence of application should be appropriate to the topic and role. Useful signs include clearer decisions, better-prepared stakeholder conversations, stronger use of a practical tool, improved escalation, more explicit trade-offs, better role clarity, or a work product that is being used in a real process. These are observable behaviours and outputs, not guaranteed performance claims.

Related Programs

Related programs in TheSkillGrid’s wider capability architecture include:

Build the Right Development Pathway

TheSkillGrid can combine this course with adjacent programs into a coherent private cohort or development pathway.

Discuss a Cohort

Upcoming Dates & Venues

No sessions currently scheduled.
Request course availability with your preferred date, location and group size. We will confirm available public-session and private-team options before any booking or payment.

Talent Management and Succession Planning for Women Leaders