the depth of talent that an organization or unit possesses, with the implication that its more junior employees are capable of assuming greater responsibilities when the need inevitably arises; generally used to refer to a senior executive’s immediate reporting staff, as in “I don’t think we can promote Tonya out of the South Asia region right now, she needs to build up her local bench strength first”; from analogy to various sports in which players not in the starting lineup wait on a literal sideline bench to be substituted in the match, depending on changing playing conditions, teammate fatigue or injury, etc.