Leadership Balance- Relevance and Replaceability.

In this second article of the Leadership Balance series, Let’s explore staying relevant while working steadily to replace ourselves.

Why do we need to make ourselves replaceable?

Most jobs have use by dates. It is good practice as a leader, to work proactively towards replacing ourselves. By doing so, we will have the support and loyalty of a great team. Surrounding yourself with great people, makes the job we do much easier. We will also build a reputation as a progressive leader. At a certain level, reputation precedes us, if and when we wish to move on.

I can feel some reading the last paragraph shaking their heads in disbelief. They would be thinking, “this is crazy,why would I want to do myself out of a job?. I need a job till I retire”

The answer to this question, in my opinion is:

1. Change is a constant and no job is forever.
2. Being in a proactive mode about replacing ourselves, will help us look for areas to grow and add value.
3. Forces us to not settle and gives us many new life experiences.
4. If we are in one place for many years, chances are that we will be more expensive than others who could do the job. ( Yearly increments have a habit of adding up). Most organisations will look for cost saving measures at some point in time. A gentleman, I knew was with the company for many years . We called him Uncle. Did the same job and knew it back to front. Unfortunately, when the downturn happened in the early nineties, uncle, was the first casualty, as senior management split is role in two and gave them to keen young people.  

How do we make ourselves replaceable.

It can take some years to become replaceable.We will need to select people with intellect, attitude and knowledge. This can be a bit of a gamble. Some folk thrive in the jobs that you hire them for, but struggle as they widen their responsibilities. Others, may be excellent at one aspect of the job, but struggle with other aspects of the job. Every individual is mixture of strengths and weaknesses.  A wise leader will play to the strengths of their team, to get the best out of them.

When we have great people in place and we play to their strengths, we will see their full potential coming out. It will be our responsibility to ensure opportunities are made available for these folk to gain experience and exposure in key elements of our role. We should be their mentor and guide,their safety net and their sounding board. How they perform with these development opportunities, will give us insights into how they will perform the job in the future. Some rise to the challenge, while others hit road bumps. We will need to explore if these road bumps are fixable or not. Having open conversation throughout this journey is essential.  There should be no surprises for either party and trust will grows as time passes.

Another factor in the equation, are other stakeholders who have a say who comes into the job we occupy. If they have different perceptions of the person we propose, then we will have a problem. It pays to have an ongoing discussion with them either at formal talent review meetings or informal meeting about how we are grooming individuals to step up. Getting common agreement goes a long way in making our life easier.

Life can take interesting twists and turns. Like the Forrest Gump Movie, it is like a box of chocolates. “You never know what you get”. You may have change in senior management or key stakeholders in the organisation. Their opinion can be quite different from ours. Hence we and our proteges may not be the flavour of the month. What we do under these circumstances, is for another article.

As our people flourish, we may find, that other talents that were latent are blooming. This may lead to them moving to other functions or divisions to build on those talents. This may seem quite disappointing. I am of the opinion, if we facilitate such growth, the universe will look after us, though things in the interim can get hairy.

In my experience, just working on developing others, should be undertaken without expectations. Each individual is in control of their lives and their choices. Empower them and everything else, falls into place. Whatever the outcome, we and the individuals learn and grow through the experience.

How do you continue to be relevant

As the bright folk in our team take on more of our role, we will have to proactively think about how we continue to add value to our organisation. This may be building on our own strengths or our development needs. Good dose of self reflection about where we want to be in the future will help in this process. Best to use the time wisely and  develop those building blocks that will enable the future to take shape. . It would be a great, if we  do our job at the next level up. This way, we can prove that we are capable of promotion and we become the natural choice.

Things to watch out for

1. Inability to balance all requirements of our job while developing others. .
2. Reluctance to acknowledge that we made a wrong call about an individual. Some leaders become blind to their proteges weaknesses.
3. Expect to rush someone through a development process.
4. Expect the team member will choose the path that we want them to take.
5. Cruise along in our job while the proteges are doing all the work
6. Not giving the TLC to other team members so that they get jealous of the proteges.
7. Not upskilling so that we can move to better things ourselves.

As you can see Relevancy and Replaceability is an intriguing balance. Do it well and we will grow ourselves, while we grow others. A truly win win situation for all concerned.  An abundance mindset will  open our minds to opportunities. Like the Tamil proverb, the well that is drained will get the fresh water.

I wish you lots of fresh water to fuel your innovative quest to become a better version of yourself.