My mother ran her family of five kids just like a business. Every spring and fall, we would have a day where the objective was to try on our clothes to see what fit or didn’t for the upcoming season. I absolutely hated this day. My mother would find a place to sit in my messy room and methodically go drawer after drawer. Piles of clothes would start accumulating on the floor – what fit, what didn’t, what needed to be washed before being packed away. And just when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel – the last drawer was emptied – she would pull out the box of hand-me-downs for the next size up. This process would seem to take hours, most of a perfect Saturday taken up while my brothers got to have fun, unsupervised.
As much as I dreaded the day set aside for trying on clothes, looking back now I can appreciate the practice. Not only for the efficiency and necessity of keeping the clothes rotating by sizes through her five children, but also the practice of setting aside significant time to methodically go through and find what still fits and what doesn’t.
This practice has applications far beyond keeping your closet fresh and practical. As a leader who is never content with staying still or stagnant, that comes with periods of time that are uncomfortable for me, as I push up against my growing edge. It feels like wearing a scratchy sweater that’s too small, but knowing I can’t just get rid of it because I don’t have a sweater the correct size to wear just yet.
In my book, I talk about a seminar through my EMBA program where the former president of US operations at Aflac spoke to my cohort. He had a lot of incredible advice but the biggest takeaway for me was all about training your replacement. How, if you want to move on to bigger and better things, you need to already know exactly who will be taking over your current position, and do the work to train them.
I had to take my own advice last week. That sweater I’m wearing is shrinking by the day but I know I can’t get a new one until I find and train the one who will get this one I’m wearing now.
A good leader is able to deliver results with his or her team. A great leader is able to deliver those same results, even after he or she has left.
Rajan Nagarajan
I made a list of everything I do on a daily basis that no longer fits me. Just like those piles of clothes on my childhood bedroom floor, I separated them into realistic job positions that I could advertise and hire for. Next, I start having conversations internally with my team who is already handling some of those tasks and discuss them taking over these newly formulated positions. I’ve been forced to pivot and change throughout my career, this is just the first time I’ve actively initiated that change instead of being along for the ride.
As a leader, how are you preparing yourself for your next pivot? Are you honing your skills or adding new ones? Are you researching and putting together a proposal for that new job opening higher up the ladder? Now I want you to consider how you are preparing the organization for your next pivot. Because that will always be the number one concern for the ownership – if they move you up, who will be moving into your spot, and what are the risks? It’s important not to forget that your organization’s success is integral to your success as a leader.
Some practical preparation tips I’ve picked up in my eight years of pivoting every few months:
- Write down your daily tasks. It might seem silly, and of course you know what you do on a daily basis, but you’d be surprised how much and multifaceted it becomes. Just go through your outbox in your email for a few days and take a look at how many times you’ve influenced a file, product, order, or team member. Write down those tasks as if you’re creating a new job advertisement. Even if you end up promoting from within, your replacement will appreciate the clarity of the list rather than just telling them, “Oh, you’ll be doing what I do every day.”
- Create how-to guides. Just a simple Word document with step-by-step instructions and lots of screenshots. If you need to get fancier, there are a lot of tools and sites that can help you screen record more complicated processes, like Scribe AI.
- Look around your team and determine if there’s an internal hire that could replace you. Start investing time in showing them more of what you do to gauge their interest in your tasks. Not only will you be in a position to offer a recommendation for your replacement, you’ll also be investing more into your team and creating even stronger ties for when you’re promoted.
- Understand that moving up in your organization does not erase or reset what you’ve accomplished prior to the new position. If your department collapses after you’re promoted, that will reflect on your leadership and it’s to your own benefit, in addition to the organization’s, to ensure the health and longevity of your department and team long after you leave. That’s the difference between a good leader and a great leader.
