Leadership Transition: Putting our Last Job First

Perry Maddox explores the risk in leadership transition and explains how leaders benefit from preparing their exit from day one.

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There’s nothing worse.

We watch a good leader in action.  They rally teams around a shared vision. They enable everyone to be their best, attracting investment to make it happen.  Things are transformed.

Then the leader leaves, and things fall apart.  The hard work, the teams and the impact collapse on themselves. I’ve seen too many successful leaders fail at this final stage.

Why?

They usually fail to consider their departure until it’s too late.

Prepare Your Exit from Day One.

Nobody stays in a leadership role forever.  Maybe a new job comes along. Perhaps you’ve given it all you can, and it’s time for a new challenge. Careers happen. Alternatively, personal circumstances change.  A family member gets sick, or a partner gets a job in a new city.  Maybe it’s time to retire.  Life happens. 

What comes next is what matters.  

Those who fail at this last step massively let down their organisation, their people, the cause and themselves.  What’s the point of all of the effort we put in if it all falls apart when we step away?

Yet it happens all the time.   Mainly because leaders don’t consider their exit until it’s too late.  

Preparing for your last day is a job that good leaders begin on day one.

Know The Goal for any Leadership Transition. 

It doesn’t matter if you lead a small team or a huge global organization. The ultimate goal for any leader is to be succeeded by a better one.  

Think about how difficult that might be.  If you’ve excelled, you’ll have raised the bar for your successor.  So take your time and start early to set them up for success, even if you don’t know who they are yet.  

It takes time to cultivate strong successors, to wean your team from your leadership, to download what you carry in your head, and to handover to your successor.  It all takes time.

By the time many leaders realise that, it’s too late. So we send out the job advert and cross our fingers. We sketch out a handover plan that’s great on paper, but we know it will never happen in our busy days.  We act like one eye isn’t looking out the door, but we’re not fully present from the moment we hand in our notice. 

So, we close our eyes and blindly hope at this last step, risking everything we’ve achieved as leaders.

By the time you’ve handed in your notice, it’s too late to start preparing for a leadership transition.   To transition to a successor who will succeed, start preparing your exit now. 

Lay the Foundations for Leadership Transition, Every Day.

Change is normal.  We all move on. 

The question is – will you leave well?  Here are six great ways to prepare to leave, even if your exit is still many years away.

1. Set the tone that it’s not about you.  Put the spotlight on the team, the organisation and the cause.  Success must never depend on one leader, so shape the narrative accordingly.
2. Assess the gap you’ll leave. Identify the roles you play, the skills you bring, and what your team will miss most in your absence.
3. Build, build, build.  Build diverse, high performing teams.  Create strong systems to decrease dependency on individuals. Build the skills in your people to match the gaps you’ll leave.
4. Lead generously. Create opportunities for your team to fully lead elements of your role, now. Share your knowledge and relevant networks with your teams and successor. 
5. Practise absence.  Take your leave. Stay out of some leadership spaces. Pull back in meetings to let others lead. 
6. Cultivate successors. Actively prepare internal leaders for the next step and network externally. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Develop a great pool of candidates.

These are just a few ways to work yourself out of a job from day one.  There are many more.  

We’ll explore techniques for these steps in other posts, but for now: why are you waiting?

Reap the Benefit Well Before The End.

It’s among the most important achievements for a leader.

You may not leave for many more years.  By preparing now, you’ll improve your work the whole way.

When you build a strong team and decrease dependency on you, you reap benefits now.  You’ll be able to take your leave and actually switch off. You’ll be able to focus your work on the true priorities, trusting your team to run the rest.  Preparing to leave sets you up for years of success before you go.  

When it is finally time, you’ll leave knowing that everything you’ve led will continue to grow.