A Profitable Succession Plan

As the foundation was being laid for what I believe is still the greatest nation on Earth, Thomas Jefferson penned these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

In a recent Strategic Leadership Coaching session with a client who owns and operates a very reputable business, we discussed a few of his options for transitioning that business 15 to 20 years down the road when he may not want to be as involved as he is today. One critical point we covered in that discussion was that it may not be as simple as passing the business on to his best and most effective team members. The reality is that some folks have ZERO interest in taking on all the extras that go along with running a business. They may be extremely happy in doing the day to day work involved but there’s so much more… In our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy and I share that one of the best ways to build stronger connections with the teams we lead is to create experiences that everyone enjoys. Then we immediately remind participants that everyone doesn’t enjoy the same experiences!

Before you start thinking I’m off my meds (just kidding, I don’t take any!), let’s tie those points back to Jefferson’s statement and look at how all of it matters if we’re going to have any hope of creating a succession plan that yields profitability.

It’s not uncommon for someone in a leadership role to assume that anyone who’s great at what they do naturally wants to climb the company ladder. While I believe that all men are indeed created equal, I’ve learned that everyone’s pursuit of happiness doesn’t necessarily follow the same path. Once we’ve learned to recognize the right candidates to promote, and we’re sure they’re pursuing those promotions for the right reason, we’re off to a solid start. Even then though, there will be times where we’ll have to fight the urge to pressure some of our best team members into moving into a role we believe they would be great in but they have absolutely no interest in doing. (Remember Phil…)

With that in mind, the question really becomes “How can we effectively utilize our best team members who have no interest in supervising or managing?” Let’s face it, getting results through a team of people is a completely different beast than getting results on our own - even if the exact same processes and procedures are involved! Don’t take my word for it though, just try taking a family of eight through an airport the same way you’re used to navigating gate to gate by yourself… 

In those cases, our best option may well be this thing referred to as a parallel path; providing a different option for those great team members to advance without forcing them to accept responsibilities they’re not equipped for or interested in. This is a way we can provide opportunities for everyone, just not the same opportunities that we’d always chase… Not only can this play a big part in building some of those key folks into our succession plan, it can help ensure their expertise can be passed on to the ones who follow them. And we haven’t forced them into a role they weren’t interested in!

Regardless of the path any great team member follows, we cannot assume they’ll automatically be as successful as they had been in their previous role. We have to provide them with the right support. We’ll look at that briefly next before mapping out specific ways we can intentionally develop every individual role in our organization and capture the profitability that’s killed otherwise.