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 Motivator

Audience Development Group
Succession Plan        December 14, 2011
Tim Moore
Tim Moore, Managing Partner Audience Development Group

Managing Partner

Audience Development Group

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Greetings!

Things that can't go on forever...don't. Companies, sports franchises, and organizations that were in denial over the inevitability of a leadership change litter the landscape of history. Instead of planning calmly and deliberately it's much easier to avoid the unthinkable: the day a long term high-impact leader goes away. We've been in the center of a few of these sudden endings, and because ours is a performance business the unplanned departure of a morning star, program director, sales manager, or CEO is often far more devastating than in the labyrinth of a large conventional corporation. Apple knows Steve Jobs can't be replaced, yet assuming their internal spirit nourishes the culture endowed by Jobs, the wind will be at their back and they'll eventually restore the most important asset their erstwhile leader gave that company: the intangible belief in making the impossible possible.

 

It's always inspirational to read about the courage and charisma of very successful people. When those people so inextricably woven into a company's identity are suddenly absent those who must remain are left to ask, "What happens now?" Was there life after Gordon Bethune left Continental Airlines, after Howard Schultz vacated Starbucks, or after Urban Meyer resigned in Gainesville? Never mind these questions imply false notions; that leadership revolves around a Lone Ranger such as the aforementioned luminaries. Is there life after an icon leaves? We want to think so. Here's why.

 

First, people in top-tier organizations have an uncompromising commitment to a cause that's larger than a financial statement (if yours doesn't, you may not have a very good company). For example at Southwest Airlines they loved Herb Kelleher. His charisma, his charm, his renegade creativity, and love for life made Kelleher that industry's most unusual CEO and one of the most enigmatic of all time. But years after Herb's departure, today's Southwest employees aren't simply loyal to a departed icon but instead devoted to "the movement" which endowed the right spirit at the right time for a company to create its own chapter for the next In Search of Excellence. In other words, the culture you create becomes a part of your succession plan.

 

If you take inventory among your people, test the question of their belief in the larger company plan and purpose, or their fixation on the idea the company is only an extension of a mastermind in the corner office. So fundamental to the succession-planning process is the reality that it's not "if" but "when and how?" It seems simple but it's not. When a high profile hero suddenly goes missing everyone wants to talk about the organization's systems or processes. Few go behind the curtain to study the person; what temperaments did they instill, were they heavy handed or empowering? Where do those shadows fall in your halls and meeting rooms today?

 

If you're a leader regardless of enterprise, have you put in place a blueprint for succession by reaching down into the organization granting permission for growth and exploration? Have you replaced with "better" instead of "same" and can you sense a culture that will bend-never-break when you hand over your keys and move on to your next mountain? Do your people fully accept that good is the enemy of great? On Lincoln's passing someone said, "A tree is best measured after it's been cut down." A company may be best measured by what has been planted.

Sincerely,

Tim Moore

Tim Moore

Managing Partner 

Audience Development Group

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