The Plan—

When Jim Lyonfields retired from Talent Assessment & Development in 2015, he knew he was leaving the company in capable hands. Even before the symptoms of Huntington’s Disease began to manifest themselves in Jim’s life, he and Shawna had begun an extensive succession planning process.

Succession planning is the process of proactively identifying a suitable replacement for a key player and preparing them for their new role through mentorship, development, training programs, and job rotation. It is essential for the long-term viability of every company. If done correctly, succession planning ensures there are no significant disruptions to an organization’s normal workflow.

The retirement of a cofounder has the potential to dramatically affect both the company and the clients, especially for a family-owned business such as TAD. We paid close attention through the entirety of our succession planning process to ensure there would be no such dramatic disruptions. We began by looking internally, but even with all the incredible skills of our employees, we realized none were ready or right for the role of Jim’s successor. We then expanded our search and found TAD’s future and a replacement for Jim in one of our longtime partners, Lynn Sgouros.

Lynn underwent a series of our own assessments and we compared her results to those of Jim. We discovered the two had exceptionally similar profiles and that she had the right personality traits, skills, experiences, and drive to fill Jim’s role. Lynn began training under Jim and his responsibilities were slowly transitioned to her. It was a step-by-step process of telling active clients about the coming transition, but it reached its conclusion a year ago when Lynn was officially announced as CDO and HR Business Partner.

After Lynn’s hire and our subsequent growth, we knew we needed to add another consultant well-versed in psychology, people strategy, and technology. We found who we were looking for in another longtime partner, Caitlin Breuer. Like Lynn, Caitlin’s talents were appraised using our assessments and she was officially named as a Senior Human Resources Consultant in August.

Adding Lynn and Caitlin to the Talent Assessment & Development family has only made us stronger. Jim is missed, but we have taken steps to ensure the company will continue to thrive even in his absence.