As founder or CEO of your business, you may be contemplating letting go of the reins sometime in the future. If so, don’t wait till that date to prepare for handover! Effectively transitioning to a new leadership team is fraught with challenges. Done well, it ensures your leadership team is ready to take over with confidence; your goal is to build a cohesive, strategic, and capable team that can sustain and grow the business beyond the current leadership. The earlier you start building towards succession, the greater the chances of a smooth and successful handover.
For example, Dave from Bus Africa Importation (BAI) was released from pulling the business forward on his own, and could step back to allow the team to share the load and pull together towards the future. Ultimately, Dave gained the freedom to let go of the business and to explore new business opportunities in Australia.
Here are 6 important considerations that people like Dave implement as they work towards succession:
Involve your leadership team in annual and quarterly strategic planning workshops that push them to think beyond daily operations and learn to think and act strategically. These workshops provide an opportunity to focus on the bigger picture, assess the current position of the business, analyze market trends, and make tough strategic choices. By challenging your team to step up and contribute to high-level thinking, you create leaders who are both invested in the business's success and skilled to shape the future of the business.
Says Dave from BAI, “I needed my team to be able to discuss and debate with me and these sessions helped them take on more of a shared ownership so that they became partners in setting priorities and finding solutions.”
By practicing strategic thinking in these workshops, leaders gain the discipline to make high-quality decisions and tough choices, a vital skill for any successor.
As a team, collaboratively define a long-term (5 to 10 years) goal for your business, often called a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). It will serve as a powerful motivator and align your team around a shared vision. The goal should stretch the capabilities of the organization today, forcing the team to stay focused and make tough choices needed to drive towards business goals without getting distracted.
You may anticipate exiting before such a long time-frame. That’s fine. Your team will be aligned with the goal and have the momentum and skills needed to keep driving toward the goal. You can exit securely in the knowledge that you’ve set the business and the leadership team up for success and on a clear path of growth and sustainability.
As Collen from Grow's client VIVA Engineering says “We didn’t have a strategy, we were stumbling from project to project. Our Grow coach helped us implement a strategy and it has really helped give us a plan within the company to work towards. VIVA Engineering's BHAG was communicated across the entire company, which not only motivated the team but also unified their efforts toward achieving strategic growth.”
Strategic thinking should always translate into clear and actionable execution plans. In your annual and quarterly workshops, break down broad strategies into specific annual priorities, and break these down into quarterly priorities. Then assign accountability for each priority to a specific leadership team member. Now the team has the foundation needed to learn how to focus on strategic execution and to hold each other accountable to get these priorities done.
For example, at Bantry Construction, Colin, Konrad and Charlotte were the incoming next generation of leadership to take business into the future. They set clear annual and quarterly strategic priorities. Their quarterly strategic planning workshops helped to keep the team focused on executing their strategy and kept them aligned despite the day-to-day operational demands of the business.
Rigorously assess the roles (or seats) you need on your leadership team to execute your strategy. Then assess whether you have the right leader in each seat, whether there are seats with no one in them, and whether there are seats with more than one leader in them.
Use Grow’s Team Accountability Chart to analyze roles and assess who is in each seat.
Colin, Konrad and Charlotte from Bantry undertook this exercise and quickly realized they were spending too much time on project and site work and had no time to work on plans and strategies to grow the business. Konrad took on the Managing Director role and oversees the operational side of the business while Colin heads up the Financial Department and Charlotte oversees the Quantity Surveying (QS) Department.
5. Enhance Individual Leadership Capabilities
Leaders must proactively work on improving their leadership capacity. This might include learning new leadership styles, delegating effectively, empowering their teams, building systems and processes for efficiency, and shifting from managing tasks to enabling growth. Ensuring each leader has a plan for continuous development and holding them accountable to executing on the plan helps leaders step into roles where they guide rather than execute.
An example is how Collen Gibbs at VIVA has engaged a specialist coach within Grow to help his management team to function more effectively as individuals, as a team and as managers, to help Collen more effectively execute on the growth strategy of the business.
Using tools like the Leadership Circle Profile can provide valuable insights into current leadership capabilities and help identify areas for growth.
A cohesive leadership team is crucial for driving the business forward and ensuring a smooth succession. Pay attention to dysfunctional behavior in the team and develop trust amongst team members. Teams that have deep trust and are united in their plans can hold the tough conversations necessary to shape the future of the business and can more effectively navigate the challenges of leadership transition.
For example, during a recent workshop, the Sales Director claimed that developers didn’t care about customers, prompting an emotional response from the Head of Engineering. Despite the tension, both focused on the issue rather than making personal attacks. The team trusted each other enough to allow open discussion, which ultimately strengthened their shared understanding. A dysfunctional team avoids conflict like this, obstructing their ability to function cohesively and effectively.
Check out our article on 5 Common Leadership Team Dynamics and How to Approach Them for more insights on this.
For more in depth reading, check out Patrick Lencioni’s book 5 Dysfunctions of a Team book for a brilliant model and story describing how to spot and address dysfunctional team behavior.
By involving your leadership team in setting direction for your business, setting an ambitious long-term goal, investing in leadership development, fostering team cohesion, and ensuring clarity of roles on your leadership team, you can build a resilient organization capable of thriving beyond your tenure. Strategic, thoughtful planning will pave the way for a smooth transition and sustained success. But this takes time, so don’t wait till the moment you want to exit. Plan for at least 2 years, if not more, to get all these elements working before your departure.
At Grow, we've helped many founders/CEO’s and their teams navigate the succession journey. If you’re considering embarking on a Grow coaching program, you’re likely curious about what the journey entails and how it can benefit you and your leadership team.
Download "The Client Journey Coaching to Clarity" below for more insights into this transformative experience. It is designed to guide you through a structured process that enhances your leadership capabilities, aligns your team with strategic goals, and prepares your business for a successful future.