Why Leaders Who Aren’t Needed Are The Leaders You Need Most

Over the last few years, I’ve watched a series of tragedies. Strong, successful organizations – businesses, non-profits and churches that avoidably slumped, or worse, collapsed.

Each of their stories is different. But the reason for their decline or demise is the same: Dependence on a single leader.

In a few (rare) cases, this dependence may have been extended to a very small group of leaders. But if so, it was a group that thought and moved together. One that intentionally or unintentionally controlled power and information.

Strong leaders allow for clear direction. Fast, decisive growth.

Strong leaders often build unsustainably strong organizations. Like an oak tree in bad soil. The tree might be strong, but that won’t prevent it from being uprooted.

The simple reason is this: Their strengths allow others to be dependent on them. Another way of saying this: Their strengths encourage or cultivate organizational weaknesses.

In some cases, this dependence is intentionally cultivated. Some leaders actively work to retain as much power, control and information as possible.

In other cases, it’s an oversight:  the result of an exceptionally intelligent, successful leader who is busy doing his or her thing and neglects the building of the organization.

Sometimes it’s an accident. Many entrepreneurial leaders specifically hate bureaucratic, rigid, “corporate” environments.

Their success came from being nimble, “disruptive”, and figuring it out as they go. So they just don’t believe or want there to be structure. Which they interpret as life-killing and soul-sucking.

Strength is not a sign of strength. Wait…What?

It’s not uncommon for a single, strong leader to catapult an organization to a place where they are the dominant player in their space. In fact, that happens much of that time.

A committee-run organization is rarely an exceptional one (especially not during rapid growth). Their organization appears to be resilient. It seems that they’ve assembled the “A” team around them. They may be groundbreaking in the value they bring.

As long as the leader they all depend on never leaves, never gets sick, never dies, never makes a major mistake, never… well, you get the picture.

In the business world, just over 50% of all leadership departures at the ownership level are unplanned. Think about that for a second.

I don’t have statistics for employed CEOs, non-profit, or faith-based organization leaders. But in my experience, they aren’t radically different.

If your organization is dependent on a single leader, the odds are they won’t leave on their own terms.

Something to consider.

Why They Fail

A client of mine was hit by a truck. These things happen. There are endless reasons why these leaders may leave. Health issues, family stuff, divorce, conflict, and death account for most reasons.

But the unavoidable point is, they will leave. There is no way around it.

And when they leave, their organizations predictably decline or fail because these leaders:

• Never cultivated key leadership capacity within the organization. They may have built management capacity in the organization. If the organization achieved any level of size, it is a given that they have. But they didn’t build the ability for the organization to lead itself.

• Were the brand. The leader was the prominent face to the public. The reputation and identity of the organization was substantively built around the personality of the leader.

• Are the primary source of vision: The future or the direction primarily or entirely came from this one person. Everyone else became supporters and champions of that vision. The vision may be spectacular – but when the single visionary is gone – so is the organizational vision.

• Control their board: Many strong leaders build a board that mostly stays out of their way. They may provide helpful advice and counsel. They may function as a think tank. But they don’t lead and don’t know how to lead. They don’t build boards that are active in their core fiduciary duties of setting and overseeing direction.

• Control the information: They alone know key processes, contacts, clients, etc. They are the only ones who know the secret recipe to the special sauce. It isn’t written down and it isn’t accessible to anyone else.

How To Prevent Failure

There is nothing wrong with a strong leader. There is nothing wrong with an organization built, launched, transformed or energized through the leadership and personality of a single person. In many cases, a single, right person is exactly what is needed.

But to build sustainable strength – don’t design your organization to depend on that one person. Don’t design a single point of failure.

If you are this strong leader – or if you have influence with this leader, here are steps you need to take:

1. Begin now: Begin building a robust, resilient organization before you see your horizon. Most leaders never do see their horizon until they’ve fallen off the edge. Most of the others only see their horizon when there isn’t enough time or willpower to make meaningful changes.
2. Build a leadership team: You need a team of people who actively provide leadership (inform vision, decide strategy, make decisions, manage information) and can function without you. Sometimes, the fear is that if you build this team, you won’t be needed and will lose your value or place. I’ve never personally seen this happen. You probably haven’t either. Not unless the leader just stops leading. Instead, you become freed up to start leading into new areas. You aren’t needed for the old stuff, but you are even freer and empowered to build new stuff.
3. Delegate: In the healthiest and most sustainable organizations, the leaders at the top don’t do the work of the organization. Their role is to make sure that the work is being done, well, by others. They focus on direction setting, cultivating culture and nurturing strength in their teams. If you aren’t delegating most things, you probably also aren’t putting enough time into building your organization.
4. Document processes: Policies and procedures seem sexy to no one, nowhere. Except when people don’t know what to do. Then nothing else is more important. Make sure “how to do things” and “who to talk to” are all written down and accessible.
5. Talk up team: Actively build the brand of your team and your organization. Talk up their abilities. Cultivate trust in the organization. Ensure that your team can provide the services and attention that are needed. Make sure that everyone else knows it.
6. Build an active & independent board: In the United States, all corporations (for-profit or non-profit) have some sort of board structure. Healthy boards have many under-utilized opportunities to really shine. One of the times where they shine the brightest is during the situation of leadership transition. Boards that already know how to lead aren’t threatened by a change in leadership. Because they are already a critical part of the leadership structure.Over the years, I’ve observed that the more independent and active a board is, the more likely the organization will sustainably succeed and grow through a leadership transition.

Take-Aways:

Owner Independence: A business that can run independently of the owner is worth far more. Owner dependence is the single greatest killer of business value.

In fact, most owners are never able to sell their businesses because it is so dependent on them. You can’t buy the owner.

Get this:  Even in highly profitable and attractive businesses where there is still owner dependency, the buyer will often make a condition of the sale dependent on the owner becoming an employee for a number of years.

Sounds fun doesn’t it?

Leader Independence: Any other kind of organization should be able to run sustainably without the leader. Does this sound strange to you? It shouldn’t. Consider this:

A ship should be able to operate without a captain. A captain should be focused on managing navigation, oversight of the ship and ensuring the high performance of his or her crew.

If officers and crew are dependent on the captain for setting all navigation, for maintaining all standards, for ensuring all elements of safety – that’s a poorly run ship.

But the officers and crew should know how to sail the ship when the captain is asleep, or sick, or swept overboard. It’s not that the captain isn’t needed. A captain improves the performance of the officers and crew. But the ship can still make it to port safely without the captain.

Your Turn
What one thing needs to change in your organization to make your strengths sustainable strengths?

Take good care,

Christian

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