EVALUATING YOUR POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS

A key factor in planning for your retirement (what I call your transition) is being confident that the people who will succeed you have the 'timber' (aka the ability, passion, knowledge etc.) to lead your company into the future.

Choosing and developing them is one of your challenges. It's an obligation you have to your partners, shareholders and other staff members.

If you fail, all the rest of your work in building a sustainable organization will have been wasted. You will have failed in leaving your legacy.

Many leaders and owners pick their potential successors based on erroneous assumptions about 'What it takes' to be a leader. They incorrectly assume that loyalty, longevity, good technical competence, being a family member, etc. are the best criteria to use.

That's what it takes to be a good 'Number two' - a good 'doer.' That MAY qualify then to be good managers - this is not what it takes to be a leader. There are relativly few people who can lead.

What's the difference between a good manager and a good leader? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal is a good reference.

You may have lots of good managers in your company. And you'll be lucky - or brilliant - if you have surrounded youself with several people who have leadership potential - the qualifications to lead the company after you step aside.

THE BOTTOM LINE; take a long, hard look at the people around you.

Identify those who have leadership potential and focus on grooming them. If you don't have what you need, start searching - outside your company NOW. And stop wasting your time trying to make your good managers into mediocre leaders!

Three Important Questions Before Retirement

I've been thinking a lot about business owners considering retirement who will be selling their business. There are, to me, three key questions that every business owner needs to address for their retirement to be successful:

1. Will I have the money I need to support the life I want to live after I retire? That involves money I have saved and invested, my retirement funds and the proceeds from the sale of my interest in the business.


2. Have I built a strong sustainable company that will continue after I move on? Have I developed the people with the passion and the competence to lead the business and hold to the values I instilled?


3. Have I chosen a meaningful life after work that I will move into? I know that successful retirement is not an ending, It's a transition into a different 'venue' - one that will give me satisfaction because I am doing something I love to do. To be successful I need to prepare for the 'Third Phase' of my life.

People who have answered these questions in a way that matches their aspirations can move on knowing that they can make a successful transition and leave a successful business as their legacy.Those who haven't are in danger of holding on too long and destroying the very business they spent their life to create.

What about you? Are your prepared for retirement? If you are in your late fifties or early sixties think long and hard about these questions as if your life depended on it. Because it does!

RETHINKING MY MISSION STATEMENT

Ever since I 'finalized' my mission statement (see the masthead at the top of this blog) a few months ago, I've had an uneasy feeling. It just wasn't quite right.



First, my focus isn't just business owners - its business leaders, both owners and non owners.



My expertise (and my passion) is in two areas:

• Helping business leaders build the next generation of company leadership - including both their successor and the leadership team - to assure the future success of the company.
• Helping those leaders plan and implement their personal transition from the business into life after work - what I call their 'third phase.'

Second, ownership transfer, including 'harvesting income upon retirement' is the work of lawyers and financial advisors - people the business owner (hopefully) already has retained.

My role is as a personal coach, team builder and strategic planner - all areas of focus significantly different than the work of lawyers and financial advisors. I might often interact with these professionals but, most of the time, I see myself working directly with leaders and the leaders' team.

So, based on this reasoning, I have changed my mission statement to:

Coaching business leaders contemplating retirement

Who want to leave a lasting legacy and

Build a meaningful life after work.

There, that feels better!