Send to KindleLeadership Development: What Happens When You Leave?
Jack has been a terrific manager. His people like him and he’s turned in some really great results. In fact, he led his team to terrific success on the Scout project and it will be the first time such a complex new system will be completely ready for the consumer market on-time. Jill, Jack’s boss, is very pleased and has showered praise on Jack and his team as she basks in the reflected glow of their success.
The CEO is happy too. In fact, he has decided to promote Jill. At the same time, he is moving Jack to manage a larger division that has not been enjoying much success lately. Everyone’s happy, but it doesn’t last. Jill’s old division starts to struggle. Jerry, her replacement is well qualified but no one seems to be able to step into Jack’s shoes and lead his team forward.
What happened?
Going back in time we see that Jill had put team leaders in place and then essentially locked the organization as it was. There was no effort to find and train new leaders. As long as the current division leadership was in place everything was fine. When they left, there was no one ready to step up to leadership.
None of us will be around forever. One of a leader’s obligations is to ensure the organization is positioned for continued success. That means being on the constant lookout for future leaders and giving them opportunities to develop leadership skill. It’s so easy to get comfortable with subordinate leaders and not want any change. The problem is, change will happen.
Leaders have a responsibility to develop future leaders. After all, you will not be there forever.
Who will replace you?
This is not a fictional example. I’ve experienced very similar situations more than once. A good first step is to give your supervisors and managers
Don’t Worry, You Can Do This! What New Supervisors and Managers Need to Know About Leadership.
