Succession Part 1 - Letting go.
'What’s become of my ring, Frodo, that you took away?’‘I have lost it, Bilbo dear,’ said Frodo. ‘I got rid of it, you know.’ ‘What a pity!’ said Bilbo. ‘I should have liked to see it again. But no, how silly of me!In the last scenes of the LOTR trilogy a frail Bilbo Baggins is wistful about "the precious" Ring of Power, that he'd spent so much of his life coveting. The ring, infused with dark power would corrupt and distort the heart of its bearer, even almost, an ordinary hobbit. And though now destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, it's lore still bore a magnetic power over the failing memory of Bilbo.
Power sometimes has a beastly way of doing that to ordinary people - it takes a hold of us and then we can't let it go.
Now power and leadership are not the same thing but leadership involves many kinds of power. No matter its form, the challenge of all power, and by association leadership, is not merely in the attaining or managing, but in the relinquishing - casting it aside, letting it and yourself be unplugged from it.
Which brings me to a subject I've been personally close to in the past few years, that of leadership succession. We typically think about leadership in terms of ascension, more likely to celebrate that upwardly mobile promotion than the demotion. People never seem to post on their LinkedIn profiles that they gave up their senior role for something less commanding. We are told to climb corporate ladders, not leap from them because by nature, we esteem that courageous climber, the celebrity, the winner.
It all looks like a one way street but the further I get into the middle third of life the more I think planning your replacement, is essential, not optional to good leadership.
I think, the last great gift you give those you are leading, is to get out of their way!
Yet in the thick of our lives, and leadership roles, we tend to ignore our replacement like we ignore our death, somewhere in the distant future and we have too many urgent things to do in the present to concern ourselves with the important stuff that isn't happening any time this year. But then, all of a sudden, its too late. We miss the window of opportunity to leave well and those we led bear the consequences.
Pope Francis apparently had his resignation letter written long before his death, though his intention was always to die in the role as is papal tradition. I loved that till the day before his death Francis was greeting world leaders and common folk in church, and then he went home to Jesus, with the affairs of his replacement a very distant concern.
Maybe a pope can get away with this but for the rest of us, it poses an important question around planning our endings and succession. As leaders we usually don't plan to die in the role, but neither do we think much about handing it on to the right person at the right time through the right process.
When it comes to succession, I think I've been more deeply formed by those who did not do it well, than those rare individuals who did. I've watched admired pastors lead their churches into decline or stagnation because they did not make succession a priority. Maybe it was a bit of a messiah complex, maybe they just loved their work, maybe they were afraid of what comes next, or maybe it was good intentions mixed with bad planning. Whatever the reason, this culture of non-succession is one of the greatest blindspots in leadership. Much focus is on professional development of leaders to lead well, but we don't develop them to leave well.
And what might leaving well look like?
Yet in the thick of our lives, and leadership roles, we tend to ignore our replacement like we ignore our death, somewhere in the distant future and we have too many urgent things to do in the present to concern ourselves with the important stuff that isn't happening any time this year. But then, all of a sudden, its too late. We miss the window of opportunity to leave well and those we led bear the consequences.
Pope Francis apparently had his resignation letter written long before his death, though his intention was always to die in the role as is papal tradition. I loved that till the day before his death Francis was greeting world leaders and common folk in church, and then he went home to Jesus, with the affairs of his replacement a very distant concern.
Maybe a pope can get away with this but for the rest of us, it poses an important question around planning our endings and succession. As leaders we usually don't plan to die in the role, but neither do we think much about handing it on to the right person at the right time through the right process.
When it comes to succession, I think I've been more deeply formed by those who did not do it well, than those rare individuals who did. I've watched admired pastors lead their churches into decline or stagnation because they did not make succession a priority. Maybe it was a bit of a messiah complex, maybe they just loved their work, maybe they were afraid of what comes next, or maybe it was good intentions mixed with bad planning. Whatever the reason, this culture of non-succession is one of the greatest blindspots in leadership. Much focus is on professional development of leaders to lead well, but we don't develop them to leave well.
And what might leaving well look like?
For starters, it may very well look like 1. a clear, well paced and communicated plan, 2. ideally with real internal successor option(s) in the wings, 3. in a fundamentally healthy organisation. Of course its never that simple and every context will demand some variation within these three aims.
In part 2 I'll get more specific about good succession planning but for now, if you are a leader in your context, have a go at answering the following questions:
I love how in LOTR, the story doesn't end with Frodo destroying the ring of power and then The End. The ending feels especially long and unhurried as the reader comes to terms with not only the rings final destruction but the ending of its fellowship. Frodo was leaving with Bilbo, and Sam's story would continue without him. It is as though Tolkien wanted his reader to end well also.
I also love how, as Tim Keller illustrated in one of his stellar sermons, J R R Tolkien, saturated in Christian thought, chose to make a radical departure from the historical plot line of all other great legends and quest stories in antiquity. Tolkien does this in Lord of the Rings by making the central figure at the heart of of the story (Frodo), triumphant not because he was powerful nor won something precious at the tale's climax, but because he gave up something precious, even if it cost him his life, for the sake of others. And by letting go he truly won. That is of course the heart of the gospel story, and the kind of counter cultural vision of power, leadership and success that Jesus exemplifies - and the template for in all of us who aspire to lead.
In this past week I've felt the deep gladness of completing my own succession journey, gathering with my church to commission my replacement, Ben, a young(er) man who I've had a role in nurturing for the past decade. He is in my estimation a superior leader in every way and he will, under Christ, take the church further than I ever could have.
In this past week I've felt the deep gladness of completing my own succession journey, gathering with my church to commission my replacement, Ben, a young(er) man who I've had a role in nurturing for the past decade. He is in my estimation a superior leader in every way and he will, under Christ, take the church further than I ever could have.
And isn't that a great thing! Isn't that the kind of KPI we leaders should be judged by? At the right time, letting go, casting off our power so that something or someone greater than us can truly flourish. My succession journey was in no way perfect, but it is such a joy to let go, and finish well.
May you finish well too.
.......
In part 2 I'll get more specific about good succession planning but for now, if you are a leader in your context, have a go at answering the following questions:
1. If you had to guess, in how many years will you be departing your current role?
2. Have you started thinking about your succession? If not why not?
3. If hypothetically, you left your organisation on this day in three years time, what steps would you take from today to ensure both leadership continuity and momentum in your organisation?
4. Who are you actively training to potentially replace you?
2. Have you started thinking about your succession? If not why not?
3. If hypothetically, you left your organisation on this day in three years time, what steps would you take from today to ensure both leadership continuity and momentum in your organisation?
4. Who are you actively training to potentially replace you?
5. If you weren't doing what you are doing what else could you do?
Image: Unsplash
