Sunset
I was watching the sun set behind the foothills that surround Bear Lake, which straddles the Idaho-Utah border just ten miles from Wyoming. Sunsets are beautiful, but after them comes the night. We often refer to the end of something as a sunset, and I wonder if we are thinking about the night that may come after.
Chuck Palahniuk wrote in Fight Club, “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero”. Every leader you know, including you, will eventually die. What’s more, it is highly likely that before you die, you will no longer be able to lead. We will all have a sunset of our leadership.
What are you doing today to prevent a prolonged darkness when you leave? By darkness, I mean the experience of disruption and confusion that often occurs when a leader departs. Change is always disruptive in a way, but it doesn’t have to be debilitating. When we discuss one leader leaving and another coming in, we are talking about succession.
If you google leadership succession you find the focus is on the development and selection of the replacement. Not a bad idea, but I think we should also focus on preparing the community for a transition of leadership. What if the community was ready for and welcomed change in leadership roles? What if our team understood what to expect, knew the role they played in the change, and were comfortable with the idea?
None of the above can be true in a “cult of personality.” It stands to reason, then, that a culture that is mission and team centric and is based on trust, appropriate delegation, and accountable responsibility would be better prepared for a change of leadership, even at the CEO level.
We often think of political leaders or famous individuals when we think about a cult of personality. In fact, it is possible for any leader to foster this culture by demanding complete commitment and respect for the leader, making it uncomfortable or hard to ask questions, and shaming people for doubting the leader and their ideology.
Therefore, a great starting place for preparing the community for our inevitable departure is to foster commitment to a mission and core values, as well as to the team. It is important that the team respects the position of the leader, but it is the leader’s responsibility to earn trust through transparency, humility, and consistency.
Our culture should encourage honest questions that seek to make the community better. Questions meant to shame or tear down another person or their ideas should be dealt with by leadership, but open and honest dialogue is the primary defense against idealizing a leader.
Leaders must admit their mistakes and be truthful about their leadership. Economists Ulrike Malemendier and Geoffrey Tate found that “Superstar” CEOs actually underperform their more pedestrian counterparts. Yet, despite this lackluster performance, superstar CEOs extract more compensation from their businesses and spend more time working on non-business activities.
Good corporate governance is the best protection from this. One of the best things a leader can do to prepare their team for transition is to create, support, and submit to good governance. A board isn’t where mission and vision are formed; it is where the way that mission and vision are achieved is monitored and controlled. Leaders who are not accountable to anyone but themselves set themselves and their organizations up for a long, cold, and dark night.
Think about your leadership and ask yourself, “Am I creating a sustainable legacy for the people I serve, or am I building a dynasty in my image and likeness?” Great leaders plan for their sunset and provide the light to guide their organizations through the night that will come, and they are proactively planning for the sunrise of the next leader. Sunsets can be beautiful if they happen the Bison Way.