Succession planning is about psychology

To some guys, this is the most emotionally-intense part of work: you essentially have to admit that your company can exist without you. OH LORDY.

I've never written about succession planning before, so today seemed to be as good a time as any to get that going. If you've never heard the term before, "succession planning" is an element of (buzzword boulevard coming) "talent management strategy" whereby you try to figure out who's the "next (wo)man up" for a series of leadership slots. Basically, i…