Why good leaders are also good teachers

This month, Ian Read, CEO of Pfizer announced his retirement year-end and the passing of the baton to deputy Albert Bourla. GE announced the ouster of John Flannery, replacing him with board member Larry Culp. In an age when long-termed CEOs are considering retirement, new CEOs are seeing shorter terms, and churn throughout the ranks is normal, what’s an orientation that boards and hiring managers alike should look for and develop in their CEOs and recruits? We can look for the answer in another leadership transition half way across the world.

Last month, Jack Ma announced his retirement from the executive chairman position of Alibaba, the company that he founded nearly 20 years ago. A visionary, Ma’s company is one of the most powerful companies in China today. His transition is remarkable in that he has been grooming his successor for a decade. Daniel Zhang, who has been with Alibaba for 11 years, became its CEO in 2015. He will become the new executive chairman in September 2019. While it’s not uncommon for a CEO to also become executive chairman, it is rare for the transition to be ten years in the making.

Why did Ma invest so much time and energy into developing Zhang? He wants the company to last. While any good CEO or chairperson has the next decade or so in mind, Ma isn’t thinking in decades. He’s thinking in centuries. He’s planning for his company to last another hundred years, and this means he’s planning on many transitions. Leadership transitions are particularly vulnerable times in the life of a company. This vulnerability is why Ma is so invested in his own leadership transition.

This means that, for half of Ma’s tenure, he has not only been a leader in his company, but also a mentor. In my work coaching and being a thought-partner with chief executives, I’ve seen that the best leaders are also good coaches. And while coaching and mentoring may not always intuitive, these skills are learnable. One of the reasons I believe Jack Ma has been such an effective mentor to Zhang is that his roots are in school teaching. When Ma tells his own story, he says that one of his core identities is “teacher.” In fact, wanting to return to teaching is one of the reasons for his retirement. He believes that good teachers want their students to exceed their own capabilities. With this innate mentality, Ma made leadership and mentorship synonymous.

While we might not all have teaching backgrounds, there are three behaviors of effective mentors we can learn from Ma’s leadership.

1. Focus on your mentee, not yourself.

Good leaders know that in developing others the focus should be on the one you’re helping to develop. While this might sound obvious, how often do we find ourselves being more preoccupied with our own wisdom, rather than the person who sought out that wisdom. Mentors are conduits who remember that the purpose of a mentoring relationship is always empowering the next generation for their next role.

2.      Know your people. Good leaders take the time to know whom they are developing. Your mentee is not an empty vessel into which you can pour knowledge. He or she comes with strengths and weaknesses, hopes and aspirations. Knowing these characteristics will provide footholds for the practical advice a leader hopes to impart. While we might not all have ten years to develop our successor, Ma’s preparation of Zhang demonstrates the importance of relationship, and that of relationship over time.

3.      Start where your mentee is. Good leaders are willing to give up control in proportion to the readiness of the person they are developing. An old Buddhist saying states, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” The criteria for coaching is readiness of the coachee. This is less about his or her readiness in skillset or talent, and more about their readiness in mindset- in their drive to learn, receive feedback, and be shaped. Growth requires discipline and constant practice. Good leaders look for that readiness mindset.

Jack Ma’s transition tests our standard measures of power and success. He reveals that good leadership has just as much to do with how well a company does after he or she retires, as it is with how well a company does during his or her tenure. Time and tenure are not the sole measures of power and success. Instead, Ma shows us another metric: stewardship.

This metric asks the question: How might I create a sustainable business by sustaining my people? This is a different value system, to be sure. It focuses less on being a visionary than it does on creating visionaries. It requires that leaders don’t just know of their people, but simply know their people. It means effective leaders must access the teacher in us. 

*A version of this story was first published in Mandarin on LinkedIn

Sanyin Siang helps leaders launch and create value by focusing on mindset, behavioral change, and team and culture building. She is the executive director of the Coach K Leadership and Ethics Center (COLE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a professor at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. She is a CEO coach, an advisor for GV and Sports Innovation Lab. One of LinkedIn’s 2017 Top 10 Influencer Voices. She is author of The Launch Book: Motivational Stories for Launching Your Idea, Business, or Next Career.