If you’ve watched the Netflix show Succession, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what can go wrong when businesses don’t plan for the transition of power or responsibility.

The show follows the war waged among siblings for control of the family-owned multi-billion-dollar media empire when their father and company overlord falls ill. Parallels with real life aside, its cast of loathsome characters is almost as compelling as the storyline.

High drama and rich entertainment, for sure – but what it also teaches anyone in business is how important succession-planning is, and what can go wrong when you don’t have a plan, or the plan is flawed.

One of the big issues that many companies are beginning to tackle is how to transition their employees back into the office after two years of remote working – some of it enforced through lockdown, some of it, in more recent times, an informal arrangement.

It’s a tricky problem to deal with. There are many reasons why employees may be unwilling to return to office-based working, and while fear of contracting Covid is a legitimate one, it’s probably true of only a small percentage of people.

If you run a business of any significant size then you will almost certainly have faced the task of replacing an employee who has left. If you’ve been in business for a while, then you’ve probably ridden in that rodeo quite a few times.

When I talk to business leaders about staff turnover the message that keeps coming back is how time consuming and inconvenient the whole process is. What is rarely mentioned is the cost of replacing behind a departing staff member.

Being able to delegate is one of the most valuable tools you have at your disposal as a leader but done badly it can be divisive and damaging. So, why is it so useful, and how do you do it well?

There are lots of people who find it incredibly difficult to delegate at all, never mind do it well. It takes trust and confidence in your team to be able to give up direct control of a task or responsibility that impacts on your organisational performance or profitability.

How much time and money do you invest in evolving a compelling story brand around your business’ product or service? I’m betting it’s a lot. And you invest in that so heavily because you want people to buy from you.

But if I asked you how much you invest in your employer brand, the chances are it wouldn’t be anywhere near comparable – if you invested anything in it at all, that is (and there are lots and lots of SMEs that don’t).