The Los Angeles Lakers had to find a way to replace their star player Kobe Bryant because they weren’t very good when he retired – so they brought in Lebron James. Bill Gates realised in 2008 that Microsoft eventually had to replace him as CEO so he stepped down.
As important as you think you are to the organisation you built, its value will stay small if you don’t prepare for its future. For your business to stay relevant, you need to find a way to replace yourself.
This has been entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David’s realisation, which he shared in a YouTube video.
Patrick likened the importance of business owners/leaders to how presidential systems typically work. If you’re asked, “Who was the seventh or 19th president of the United States?” Unless you’re a history buff, you probably don’t know.
The point: the seventh or 19th president mattered mainly during the time they were president. The most important president in America today is the current president. Likewise, leadership for entities that grow (like countries and businesses) must have a replacement.
According to Patrick, this leads to six things you need to do when it comes down to replacing yourself.
List your tasks and skills
You have to document all your tasks and skills, then ask yourself which ones you’re best at and which ones you’re not. You then need to replace yourself in the areas where you’re not, then get your time focused on your strengths.
Remember: as a leader, whenever you spend time on areas that aren’t your strength, the value of your company goes down.
Know who’s seasonal and who’s not
Figure out “the seasons” of the people on your team. Some roles may need to be replaced in 9 months, 5 years, 10 years and so on. The trick is in knowing the projected length of stay for each role.
Why? Because you can’t assume that everybody is going to be in your company forever.
By knowing the “seasons” for each position, you’ll never be surprised when someone needs to be replaced.
Differences between sales leaders and employees
A great sales leader is always replacing themselves by replicating themselves with new sales leaders. Here’s a theoretical example:
- Mary, the top sales leader, develops Bobby – one of Mary’s direct reports.
- Bobby learns how to sell, then leads his team of 10 salespeople in a satellite office.
- Mary then develops the organisation’s next sales leader, and the next one, and so on.
The point (which is related to your employees’ “seasons”) is that each role has a lifespan, and this won’t necessarily be as long as a salesperson based on the system you run.
Know who can maintain culture
Did you know that 70% of Fortune 500 companies from 1960 are no longer around? Some may reason that these organisations are gone because their products are not being used anymore.
Patrick counters that some of them are gone because their approach to replacement isn’t efficient, and explains that your replacement has to fit the organisation’s culture.
For example, if your company is used to the culture you’ve built – based on your values and principles – then suddenly, someone different comes and doesn’t fit your culture. The result: the combination would most likely fail.
To reinforce this, Patrick noted that businessman John Sculley, who did great as one of Pepsi’s senior leaders, didn’t fit culturally in Apple during his time there.
The lesson is that if you want to replace people at higher levels, make sure they have the culture down.
Know your practices and procedures
You need to document all the processes in your organisation, from sales flow to incoming call flow and everything in between.
Why? Because everything needs to be in a manual (with step-by-step instructions) so that you can hand them to someone else and they can do everything just as well as you.
Develop leaders to help spread mindset
A valuable company is based on what kind of leaders it has. But how do you develop a leader? Patrick shares that you do this through:
- A lot of one-on-one conversations.
- A lot of private conversations.
- A a lot of mindset conversations.
- A a lot of processing issues conversations.
- A a lot of questions back and forth.
The wisdom in these conversations is being injected into your leaders and you’re hoping they take that mindset and inject it into the leaders under them. It then becomes a mindset that runs the entire organisation.
That aspect of mindset replacement is another aspect of leadership development which increases the value of your company.
Here’s Patrick Bet-David’s complete video:
Grow your business with high performers
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And who knows? Perhaps in the future, you can replace yourself with a high-performing virtual assistant (or VA) who can keep your business relevant for years to come.
