Succession’s Great Fear – Irrelevance
May 11, 2009
Don't Let your Busines Fears Make you Feel Invisible
Studies I read and my own experience tell me the same thing – fewer than half of all companies have ownership succession plans. It happens in some very large companies and it happens in most small businesses. And, in fact, some business succession plans that exist are merely print exercises to allay the fears of share- and stake-holders, with the leader having no real intention to, or desire for, stepping down.
Is it fear of planning? Is it fear that by identifying successors in advance, they may try to force the leader out prematurely? Is developing an exit strategy merely a low priority?
Thirty years in the business tells me succession planning’s greatest inhibitor is the leader’s fear of becoming invisible – irrelevant! Not wanting to go – ever – is part of it. For many leaders, particularly founders, the entity (profit or nonprofit) is psychologically tied to their own self-worth. I feel this same fear in my small company – I want to do this forever, and know I can’t.
So many of us put succession off. We tell ourselves it won’t happen to us – YET! We tell ourselves, and our possible successors, they aren’t yet ready to assume control. We turn a blind eye to the importance of who, and what, comes next. WE know next, counts, but that’s for tomorrow.
Some of us have no plan for tomorrow and so the fear rises to the level of terror. What would we do if we didn’t come in to work?
I have a friend who I helped forge a second career as a professional director after his “corporate” days were done. His post-work plan called for serving on a few boards, playing tennis (and, as I recall, golf), traveling with his wife and family, kicking back a little and just savoring life. Two years into his plan, he was busier than ever with his board work, his games still wanting love and birdies, kicking back was not yet on the calendar, but, he was spending more quality time with his wife and family.
Like many Boomers, I struggle with the fear of becoming invisible, irrelevant. But I know that fear is like the childhood fear of monsters in the bedroom, I know better. I feel it, but I know better, and try to help others because if our ideas, our businesses, our legacies are to survive and prosper, it is a fear we must all overcome.
Is this fear standing in the way of a crafting a succession plan that works for you?
(C) 2009 John J Reddish
