Walter E. Johnson, CCEP, CCEP-I (mwjohnson@kforcegov.com) is Director of Compliance & Ethics at Kforce Government Solutions (KGS) in Fairfax, Virginia.

Are you developing a succession plan? If not, I recommend that you begin developing one. A nonexistent succession plan is an organizational risk. It’s almost like a will — you are inviting chaos after your departure without one. Consider all the executives who abruptly resigned from their positions in the past year, due to alleged unethical behavior. It’s too many to name. Therefore, succession planning is important. Here’s a historic succession planning story.