Not Building the Bench
Dive into the thirteen blind spots many organization leaders will battle at one point. In this series, our president & CEO, Dave Mattson, will provide guidance on how you can overcome these challenges.
Today’s blind spot is failure to build the bench. We’re so focused on what does it take to succeed at my job. I want to be the best that I can be, so I am acknowledged. I feel good about myself, but I’m also putting myself in line for promotion. We all know that. We as leaders do that, and so do all of our people.
Here’s a problem with the bench. 63% of our executives are gonna be retiring in the next 10 years, and we’ve got about 80 some odd percent of the milleniars coming in who are going to be managers. So, in the next 10 years, we’re gonna have a massive personnel change within our executive ranks. The question is, are you ready. Are you ready?
Here’s the blind spot. Write down your management lists, your names, and right next to that, write down who would take their job if they were to resign tomorrow. What happens if they resign tomorrow? Who would take their place? Who would be competent enough? If you don’t know, you don’t have good answers, you’ve got a blind spot. To me, I think you should be able to write down every executive’s name and then who would take their spot. Here are some of the things that we want to make sure that we’re looking for at each job within our company. What are the skills, experiences, and results does somebody have to have in order to succeed at the current role? Once they know that, then they also would by default, because you’re doing it for every role … If I was career pathing to the next role, I would also be able to see in a published manner what are the skills, experiences, and results it would take to succeed in at this job.
So, if I was here, and I absolutely wanted this job, it’s not objective. It’s not subjective. I would say I want the experiences necessary here. I would ask my leader, “Could you delegate? Could you coach? Could you train me, yes, on how to be great here, but also how to be ready for this job, because, when that job comes open, I want you to feel good about it that I have those skills, those experiences, and therefore probably, I will have the results.”
When you do that, you’ll find that your people will fly. They want to be part of the organization, and, therefore, you will always flourish regardless of who leaves today or tomorrow. Good luck.
The Road to Excellence. Six leadership strategies to build a bullet proof business is on sale now at https://www.sandler.com/shop. Contact a local Sandler trainer to learn more about our organizational excellence management training program or click subscribe to get notified about future management tips.
Up Next in the Series
Blind Spot #1: Not Having a Process for Hiring
Blind Spot #2: Improperly Onboarding People
Blind Spot #3: Failing to Tie Corporate Goals to Personal Goals
Blind Spot #4: Not Creating a Culture of Accountability
Blind Spot #5: No Common Sales Language
Blind Spot #6: Not Focusing on Lead Generation
Blind Spot #7: Not Capturing Best Practices
Blind Spot #8: Failing to Train and Coach Management Staff
Blind Spot #9: Not Building the Bench
Blind Spot #10: Not Knowing How to Coach
Blind Spot #11: Not Sharing the Vision with Those who Have to Implement it
Blind Spot #12: Fostering a Culture of Learned Helplessness
Blind Spot #13: No Methodologies and Systems
The Road to Excellence
The best-selling book by Dave Mattson helps you determine what, exactly, stands between your company and organizational excellence – and what you can do about it.
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