“If a leader surrounds himself with employees who are stronger than he is in some way and teaches them the principles of leadership, the company will not collapse after he leaves. It will become better,” said J.T. President and CEO of Scribe Media. McCormick.
Script testing
To prepare a candidacy for the role of CEO, McCormick introduced the following practice: once a month he calls the chief of the operations department and sets the input data. For example, these are: co-founders on vacation, there is no contact with the CEO, and three employees quit. What are you going to do?
The CEO says that when he called for the first time, no sound was heard in the receiver. The head of the operations department had no answer, he had no idea what to do in such a situation.
McCormick didn't blame him. He understood that the lack of an answer was not the fault of the employee. Making decisions in such a situation is not part of the duties of the head of the operations department.
The man did not know how to look for a way out of this situation. Because the CEO did not prepare him to make decisions that, in a normal situation, fall within the competence of the first head of the company.
Manager error
Many leaders do the same. According to J.T. McCormick is the most common and one of the biggest mistakes made by company leaders.
Most top managers want to be the smartest and most competent in the company. They are afraid of competition from subordinates. This is a deficit mentality that keeps people from training a specialist who can replace them in case of force majeure situations.
In the absence of a competitor, it is easier to defend yourself and your position. It’s easier to make mistakes in the daily activities of the company. Easier to solve problems as they arise.
The main reason why top managers avoid making a replacement for themselves is because managers often have a poor idea of what they are doing. And this applies not only to top management.
The secret to company success
A successful company cannot stay on one person. Success is created by a team, all of whose members are smart, capable and trained. Otherwise, the company is doomed to failure if this only person leaves the company for any reason.
The secret of success for companies that have been stably working for a long time lies precisely in succession. If the first leader is able to train his deputy to work so that he can act as the leader in the absence of the director, then the next generation will teach the new leader even more.
Know the boss job
The lack of specialists in the company who are able to carry out the work of their boss creates difficulties not only in the absence of a CEO at the workplace. Similar difficulties can arise in any sector, in any department, especially if it is a large diversified company.
If the head of the company is interested in a stable business, he must prepare a replacement not only for himself. Ideally, each employee should be able to perform the functions of their immediate supervisor. There should be such a training system that everyone at his workplace learns from his supervisor and at the same time educates his subordinates.
This is another secret of the company's prosperity for a long time: the creation of a kind of continuous conveyor of specialist training. Then the dismissal of any specialist or his long absence at the workplace does not adversely affect the company's activities.
A good leader does not seek to be indispensable. He aims to create a highly professional team that is able to successfully solve any problems. Regardless of the occurrence of force majeure situations. Regardless of the absence of any of the leadership in the workplace. Despite all the challenges that any company can face in our time.
Now, after repeatedly testing various scenarios of force majeure, J.T. McCormick sometimes recalls that first test of the script in conversations with the chief of operations. And both of them know for sure that in a situation of simultaneous dismissal of three employees, the head of the company should undertake.