Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five sixty one. Today. I want to talk
Speaker 2: about something most leaders say they care about, but very
Speaker 2: few are honest enough to explore all the way through succession.
Speaker 2: We talk a lot about developing others. We talk about mentoring, training,
Speaker 2: building bench strength. That part is comfortable, The part sounds
Speaker 2: good in meetings and also in annual reports. What we
Speaker 2: rarely talk about is the emotional side of succession. The
Speaker 2: quiet fears, the identity shifts, the ego hits that come
Speaker 2: when you realize your job as a leader is to
Speaker 2: make yourself less necessary. This is advanced leadership, and it's
Speaker 2: rarely taught clearly. So let's start with the first emotion.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to admit, fear of being replaced. I've coached
Speaker 2: leaders who say they want strong people around them, but
Speaker 2: their behavior tells a different story. They withhold information, they
Speaker 2: slow walk decisions, They keep themselves in every loop. Not
Speaker 2: because they're malicious, but because somewhere deep down, they're afraid,
Speaker 2: afraid that if someone else can do the job, their
Speaker 2: value drops. Here's the truth that might sting a little bit.
Speaker 2: If your value only exists because no one else can
Speaker 2: do what you do, you haven't built leadership, you've built dependency.
Speaker 2: In aviation, no pilot is irreplaceable. That's not disrespect, that's safety.
Speaker 2: Systems are designed so the mission can continues even if
Speaker 2: someone is unavailable. The organization survives because ego is removed
Speaker 2: from the equation and leadership works the same way. Strong
Speaker 2: leaders are not threatened by capable successors, weak systems are.
Speaker 2: The second piece is even harder, identity tied to position.
Speaker 2: This is where leaders get stuck. They don't see themselves
Speaker 2: as a leader. They see themselves as the title, the chief,
Speaker 2: the director, the manager, or the founder. When that title
Speaker 2: becomes your identity, succession feels like loss instead of progress.
Speaker 2: I've seen leaders delay retirements, block promotions, and sabotage development
Speaker 2: without realizing that what they're protecting isn't the organization, it's
Speaker 2: their sense of themself. Here's a hard question every leader
Speaker 2: should sit with. If your title disappeared tomorrow, who would
Speaker 2: you be and If that question ski it airs you.
Speaker 2: It's a signal not of failure, but of unfinished work.
Speaker 2: Real leadership identity isn't tied to a chair or a
Speaker 2: name plate. It's tied to impact. It's tied to how
Speaker 2: many people can operate with confidence because you invested in them.
Speaker 2: The strongest leaders I know don't say I run this place.
Speaker 2: They say this place runs because of the people that
Speaker 2: I've prepared. That brings us to the third and most
Speaker 2: mature idea. Leading in a way that prepares the organization
Speaker 2: to function without you. This is where ego either dies
Speaker 2: or takes over. Succession without ego means you design systems
Speaker 2: that don't require your constant presence. You document decisions, you
Speaker 2: explain your thinking. You let others lead even when they
Speaker 2: won't do it exactly like you. And the last part
Speaker 2: is the trap. Many leaders say they want successors, but
Speaker 2: only if those success are think like them, act like them,
Speaker 2: and lead like them. And that's not succession, that's cloning.
Speaker 2: If your successor can only succeed by being you, then
Speaker 2: you failed them. Preparing an organization to function without you
Speaker 2: doesn't mean you disappear. It means you shift roles, You
Speaker 2: move from doer to guide, from decision maker to decision shaper.
Speaker 2: In EMS, we talk about redundancy for survival. In leadership,
Speaker 2: redundancy as respect. It tells your team this place is
Speaker 2: bigger than me, and here's a practical check. If you
Speaker 2: took two weeks off with no phone with the organization,
Speaker 2: panic or perform. If the answer is panic, that's not dedication.
Speaker 2: That's a risk. Succession without ego also requires one more
Speaker 2: uncomfortable behavior. You have to publicly elevate others quietly, not
Speaker 2: behind closed doors, in front of people. That moment when
Speaker 2: someone you train handles a situation better than you would
Speaker 2: have is not a threat. It's proof the system works.
Speaker 2: Too many leaders say I built them, but can't stand
Speaker 2: watching them shine. If you need to be the smartest
Speaker 2: person in the room to feel secure, succession will always
Speaker 2: feel like betrayal instead of success. In the final mindset
Speaker 2: shift is this Your legacy is not how long you stayed,
Speaker 2: it's how strong things were after you step back. Great
Speaker 2: leaders leave footprints, Elite leaders leave leaders if the organization
Speaker 2: collapses without you. Your leadership was never about service, it
Speaker 2: was about control. Succession without ego is not soft leadership.
Speaker 2: It's disciplined leadership. It takes self awareness, humility, and the
Speaker 2: courage to separate your worth from your role. That's why
Speaker 2: so few people teach it. Clearly, it forces leaders to
Speaker 2: look in the mirror instead of at the York chart.
Speaker 2: So here's the challenge. Ask yourself who could step into
Speaker 2: your role tomorrow in what you are doing today to
Speaker 2: prepare them, not someday today to prepare them. If that
Speaker 2: answer makes you uncomfortable, good growth usually does lead in
Speaker 2: a way that proves the mission matters more than your position,
Speaker 2: that succession without ego. And this has been the seven
Speaker 2: minute Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.