Preparing a successor before you need one

The surest sign that a leadership role was done well is that someone else can do it after you. I had the chance to see it happen in China.

My own case

My successor in China had been a project manager in my team in France, years before. He moved to China as a project team manager, before I arrived there as General Manager. So he knew the team and the business before I did. When I left, he stepped into my role.

What I think made it possible

I would not call it a plan written for the purpose. It was the way I work with the people who report to me, and the same agreement held in France and in China:

• The decisions are theirs. I ask managers to take responsibility and decide on their own, and to tell me openly what they are doing.
• The credit stays with them. I never step in front to collect it.
• Sharing lets me protect them. The more they tell me, the more I can protect the person and the team, and I never blame anyone in public.

Six months side by side

For about six months we overlapped. He kept his own position while we worked together on my role, which was about to become his. So the handover was not a date on a calendar: the change of title came after the work had been shared, not before.

What I would look for if I started again

• Someone who decides without waiting, and tells me what they decided.
• Someone who knows the people and the customers on the ground better than I do.
• Someone who has already carried a decision with consequences, and stayed steady afterwards.

The test is the same as for any team

A team that holds together when its leader is away is the real result. A successor who can step in is the same test, applied to one person.