Companies small and large, that have survived the upswings and downswings of economies have always spend a significant amount of leadership time and investment on two key elements, Leadership Bench and Talent Pipelines. Such companies go through significant product and strategy shifts to come out clear, driven by one singular success factor, Leadership. Yet many more continue to struggle, pulled down by the same element, Leadership. The trick lies in the “How” and the “what” of the Leaders actions around investment in bench and capability. The success lies in the ability of the Leader to Risk Letting Go. Let Go of safety nets that the most important roles have to be kept stable ; You have to rock those a bit with the NextGen, Let them Fall, Be there to fix the bruises, but not break the fall. Almost like when the Teen rode a bicycle with the parent holding the Carrier only for the first 100 meters. Let That be the case with building Bench. Let it Go. Sure, A corporation is much more than a bicycle, so de-risk a few actions upfront, e.g. have a backup strategy in place, but never ever sit in your own safety net.

The Second Letting Go is about Letting Go of your individual view of Blue Eyed Performers. Let Succession planning be a collective act of your core teams, allowing for debate, drama, noise, dispute and structure, to finalise those you will risk those key roles with. (If there’s no debate, the leader has not built a Leadership Team as such). This will only succeed if those decision makers are well aware of their trajectories when they expose their roles to the next generation. That too is an act of Letting Go from the Leader, Lesser Governance, more review, Lesser Direction, More Listening, Lesser Control, More Empowerment. Helping Leaders in Letting Go is the most difficult part of change enablement for Executive Coaches today. Practice it, it doesn’t come easy but is worth it.