You Should be Working Yourself Out of Your Job…WAIT, WHAT?!

Last week, we discussed Why Leadership Development Programs Fail & What to do About it. Corporate leadership development and related initiatives are pivotal in nurturing the capabilities of emerging and existing leaders from within organizations.

In this article, let’s discuss Leadership Development Pipelines.

You should be working yourself out of your job—yes, seriously, you should be. If you aren’t developing your replacement, you are doing yourself and your organization a disservice.?

"Working yourself out of a job" might seem counterintuitive, but it's a powerful concept for career growth and organizational health. It means focusing on developing your skills, streamlining your processes, and mentoring others to the point where someone else could seamlessly take over your current responsibilities. Here's why:?

• Career Advancement: When you master your current role and train someone else to do it, you demonstrate leadership, strategic thinking, and a commitment to the organization's success.?
• Increased Value: By focusing on improvement and delegation, you move from being a task-doer to a strategic thinker and leader. This significantly increases your value to the company. You become someone who can manage teams, develop talent, and drive innovation.
• Improved Team Performance: Developing your replacement isn't just about you. It's about building a stronger team. Mentoring and training others empower them to grow and contribute more effectively. This raises the team's overall performance and creates a more resilient and adaptable work environment.
• Reduced Stress and Burnout: Delegating tasks and sharing knowledge lightens your workload and reduces stress.
• Organizational Agility: When multiple people are capable of performing various roles, the organization becomes more agile and adaptable. This minimizes disruption and ensures business continuity.
• Personal Growth: Training and mentoring others is a fantastic opportunity for personal and professional growth. You'll develop your communication, leadership, and teaching skills and gain a deeper understanding of your work as you explain it to others.

In a 2023 Forbes article, Developing A Leadership Pipeline: Plan Ahead Or Get Left Behind, Adrian Gostick identifies five key aspects of organic leadership development:

Identify High-Potential?Employees: Identify them early and nurture their talents to become future leaders. High-potential employees are characterized by their work ethic, dedication to the organization’s mission, and ambition for team growth.

Coach/Mentor Them Toward Their Next Job: Provide regular, in-depth coaching to help employees develop leadership skills.

Create More Steps To Grow: To engage younger workers by implementing more frequent promotions and career feedback. ?

Succession Planning: Develop a robust succession plan to ensure seamless transitions in key leadership roles. ?

Rotate People: Rotate key employees among different jobs to broaden their skill sets and perspectives. ?

A Leadership Development Pipeline should consider three key phases of development for leaders:

• Leadership of Self

• Leadership in Teams
• Leadership in Organizations

Leadership of Self is about focusing on personal effectiveness and productivity and building a strong leadership foundation. This includes developing emotional intelligence, resilience, critical thinking, and time management skills.

The next phase, Leadership in Teams, emphasizes building relationships, managing conflict, and enhancing team performance. During this phase, leaders need to influence others, communicate effectively, and develop coaching and collaboration skills.

The third phase, Leadership in Organizations, requires a broader perspective. It focuses on setting vision and strategy, aligning with organizational goals, and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation. Leaders at this phase need to be adept at change management, succession planning, and developing others while focusing on operational effectiveness and business acumen.

Leader Behaviours & Attributes

Let’s examine the behaviours and attributes of emerging leaders in each of the three phases:

Leadership of Self

• Prepare for a Leadership Role: This involves actively seeking opportunities to learn and develop leadership skills, such as taking on challenging assignments, seeking feedback from mentors, and attending leadership development programs.
• Build a Common Leadership Language: Developing a shared understanding of leadership terminology and concepts enables clear communication and alignment within the team and organization.
• Develop Personal Effectiveness: This encompasses a wide range of skills, including self-awareness, emotional intelligence, time management, and stress management.
• Improve Individual Productivity: Enhancing focus, prioritization, and organization to efficiently achieve personal and professional goals.

Leadership in Teams

• Transition from Individual Performer to Leader: Shifting focus from personal achievements to supporting and empowering team members to achieve collective goals.
• Build Relationships: Cultivating trust, rapport, and open communication with team members, peers, and stakeholders.
• Deal Effectively with Conflict: Addressing disagreements and tensions constructively, finding common ground, and facilitating resolutions that benefit the team and organization.
• Handle Complexity: Navigating ambiguous situations, managing multiple priorities, and making sound decisions in the face of uncertainty.
• Sell Ideas to Senior Leaders: Persuasively communicating proposals, securing buy-in, and gaining support for initiatives from organizational decision-makers.
• Select and Lead Others for Higher Performance: Identifying and developing talent, providing coaching and mentorship, and creating a high-performing team culture.
• Enhance Team Performance: Setting clear expectations, providing feedback and recognition, and fostering collaboration and accountability within the team.

Leadership in Organizations

• Build a Strong Executive Persona: Develop a professional brand and reputation that reflect leadership capability, inspire confidence, and garner respect.
• Set Vision & Build Toward the Future: Creating a compelling vision for the organization, setting strategic goals, and inspiring others to work towards a shared future.
• Set Organizational Direction: Establish priorities, allocate resources, and make decisions that align with the organization's mission, vision, and values.
• Align with Strategy: Ensuring individual and team goals align with the overarching organizational strategy.
• Foster Alignment Across the Organization: Promoting collaboration, communication, and coordination across departments and teams to achieve organizational objectives.
• Increase Organizational Profitability: Driving financial performance, optimizing resource utilization, and creating sustainable organizational value.

Leadership Competencies

What competencies are expected as leaders evolve through these three phases?

Leadership of Self

• Emotional Intelligence: Involves recognizing and managing one's own emotions and understanding and influencing the emotions of others.
• Resilience: The ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and maintain a positive outlook in facing challenges.
• Influence: Involves persuading and motivating others, building consensus, and gaining support for ideas and initiatives.
• Critical Thinking: Analyzing information objectively, evaluating arguments, and making sound decisions are vital skills in leader evolution.
• Time Management: This refers to the ability to prioritize tasks, manage time effectively, and meet deadlines.
• Task Prioritization: This is the ability to identify the most important tasks and focus on them first.
• Ethical Leadership: Involves demonstrating integrity, honesty, and fairness in all actions and decisions.
• Self-Assessment: Refers to objectively evaluating one's strengths and weaknesses and identifying areas for development.
• Professional Branding: This involves creating a positive and consistent image of oneself as a leader.

Leadership in Teams

• Change Management: Leading and managing change effectively, minimizing resistance and maximizing buy-in.
• Solve Problems Successfully: This involves identifying problems, analyzing root causes, and developing and implementing effective solutions.
• Communication:?The ability to communicate clearly and effectively orally and in writing.
• Conflict Management: This involves the ability to manage and resolve conflict constructively.
• Succession Planning: This is identifying and developing future leaders within the organization.
• Team-Building & Engagement: This refers to creating a positive and productive team environment where team members feel valued and motivated.
• Developing Others: This involves providing guidance, support, and feedback to help others grow and develop their skills.
• Coaching: Providing guidance and support to individuals to help them achieve their goals.
• Collaboration: The ability to work effectively with others to achieve shared goals.

Leadership in Organizations

• Visioning & Strategy:?In this phase, leaders create a compelling vision for the future and develop strategies for achieving it.
• Culture & Values: This involves promoting and upholding the organization's culture and values.
• Organizational Resilience: Refers to enabling an organization to adapt and thrive in the face of change and disruption.
• Cultural Awareness: This involves understanding and respecting different cultures and perspectives within the organization.
• Inter-generational Awareness: This involves understanding, managing, and appreciating the dynamics between different generations within the workplace.

The HBR article, Developing Your Leadership Pipeline (Conger and Fulmer), offers the following guidelines when considering your leadership pipeline:

• Focus on Development:? Integrate succession planning with leadership development to ensure you are aware of the skills that future leaders require and understand how they can acquire them. Combine training with work experience focused on solving real organizational problems.?
• Identify Key Positions: Identify middle and senior management roles critical for the organization's sustained growth and success. Regularly identify high-potential people within the organization and develop their leadership capabilities by providing training, mentorship, additional responsibilities, and challenging tasks.?
• Be Transparent: The succession process needs to be transparent. Transparency encourages and fosters potential leaders by ensuring they know their standing in terms of potential and performance.?
• Measure Progress Regularly:? Identify and apply the relevant KPIs in your organization that measure leadership potential and performance. Do you have the right people in the right seats? Do you have the right people in the pipeline to fill those seats when they become vacant?

Invest in your future, your team, and your organization.

The idea of working yourself out of a job might seem paradoxical, but it's a cornerstone of effective leadership and organizational growth.

By prioritizing the development of your team members and focusing on continuous improvement, you'll enhance your career trajectory and build a more resilient, adaptable, and high-performing organization.?

A robust leadership development pipeline encompassing the three key phases of Leadership of self, Leadership in Teams, and Leadership in Organizations is needed.

Leadership development is a long game essential for nurturing emerging leaders and ensuring seamless transitions in key roles.

Start Building Your Pipeline Today

Don't wait for a crisis to highlight the need for leadership development. Take proactive steps today to build a strong Leadership Development Pipeline within your organization.

Start by identifying high-potential individuals and providing them with the coaching, mentorship, and opportunities they need to grow.

Review your current leadership development programs and ensure they align with the key competencies and behaviours required of your organization.

Embrace transparency in your succession planning process and regularly measure progress to ensure you have the right people in the right seats, both now and in the future.

Begin working yourself out of your job, not by diminishing your contributions, but by amplifying the potential of those around you.

Your future success, and the success of your organization, depends on it.